The Legend of Spyro: Cataclysm
by Scope Eva
Summary: When worlds collide and cultures clash the fate of two worlds will hang in the balance.  Will two very different species be able to put their differences aside?  If not can those who have become entities of these two worlds bring peace?
1. Falling into Things

Beeping. Tortures beeping. Right now for the fourteen year old boy lying next to the infernal device creating it that was all that existed. If slugs could beep he was sure this is what it would sound like; an annoying off cored sound that seemed to stick to your ear drums. However this was much the point of the device as it was his alarm clock. Unfortunately this was also a Sunday.

Strange dreams had visited him that night, dreams of dragons at war, some malevolent evil rising, a dirty purple beam of light smothering some poor young dragoness, a purple one living with dragonflies the irony of which amused him, four specific older dragons in council over some mater and much more. It was bazar and perplexing but strangely realistic and organised compared to most of his dreams. Unfortunately as the waking world called him the details faded and images blurred much to his disappoint. It was an interesting dream and one of the most coherent he had had in a while.

After about half an hour of repeatedly hitting the snooze button on his clock every other minuet he finally decided he was no longer going to get any rest that morning. Sluggishly he heaved himself out of bed.

'_Might as well get an early start to the day if nothing else.'_ He thought as he got up and walked to his dresser across the room to reach under his pyjama top to apply his morning dose of deodorant.

As he did he caught a glimpse of something in the mirror, something white, blue and yellow. He dismissed it as a trick of the light in favour of smirking at how ridicules he looked with his messy and absurdly long blond hair; it was down to the small of his back thanks to him avoiding the blade of the barbers and a school that was lax on heir length rules. He looked into his own light icy blue eyes. Eyes had always fascinated him. He had firm face that his long hair made look thinner then it actually was. He didn't mind, in fact he thought it made himself look more regal and sophisticated.

A moment later he mentally chastised himself for being vain.

Grabbing his dark blue dressing gown off the back off the wooden chair in front of his computer he put it on and opened the top draw. From it he took a paper bag and grabbed one pieces of the soft black eating liquorish inside.

It was an acquired taste, like most good foods in England. They weren't strictly specking sweet but they tasted good, to him at least. They lacked the sugary excess of American candy but then so did all sweets in England. It was home; what he grew up with, so he preferred it.

He turned to his window and pulled apart the thick red curtains revealing the view of the country side around him. It was mid-September; specifically that strange time when the leaves had only just started to fall off the trees but the leaves had all began to die giving a fantastic gold, yellow, red and orange glow to the groups of trees.

His farther, Alexander Highlander, owned most of the surrounding land and the largest weapons manufacturing company in Britain, maybe even Europe and some would argue the best in the world; Aquila Industries.

It was a strange thing really, it earned his family both admiration and scorn from different people. However he saw it as a social handy cap. Sure he got to play with the cool toys occasionally but when it came to meting people they judged him on what they thought of his father's occupation rather than getting to know him. Even if they were ignorant of it at first they soon found out either through some obnoxious teacher or more knowledgeable student who hated his guts for some reason or another. Sure he had friends but he could only considered people friends after he had got to know them for a year or two and the subject of their praise or chastising turned into friendly jokes. Some how he had made friends on both sides of that fence, those who thought his father's job was a necessity and thought who thought he was adding to the problem, though admittedly more on the former however it was still few altogether.

His attitude once again had varying results as well, he simply could not tolerate fools and did not trust easily but he often was the one to give a bully a bloody nose if he caught them picking on someone. He had done it so often that a group of them decided to gang up on him when he was alone. He ended up in hospital with a broken, nose, arm and even a couple of cracked ribs, but at least he wasn't alone; he managed to take three of them down with him and the rest all had at least a nasty bruise or two. They left him alone after that, not worth the trouble, especially as his dad had taken them to court over it.

As for the company it was not wholly dedicated to making weapons. Aquila Industries also had an impressive research and scientific branch that delved into anything of value to humanity as a whole, selling the results to partner companies who were more suited to manufacturing useful products out of the research and distributing them. Something he could be mildly proud of.

Breathing in and out deeply to help get the oxygen flowing in sight of the brilliant scenery, he soon moved on. The house was large but not excessively, it was no manor house but six bedrooms, four of which were en-suite was nothing to shake a stick at in Britain. On average they had the smallest houses in Europe. While it was not excessive in size it was unusually eccentric in design, having a relatively modern block like design but being built into the side of a large hill and the basement connecting to a small cave network his dad used as a private work shop and test centre.

Reaching the kitchen his search for a decent breakfast was in vain. All the bacon was frozen and the only box of cereal that had any amount sufficient enough to fill his bowl was Corn Flakes.

"Typical." He murmured as he put the kettle on to make some coffee and hot chocolate mocha and reluctantly poured the bland cereal into a bowl, added milk and made his way to the dining room.

The dining room was the largest room in the house, dominating the forward most centre area and doubling up as a living room. Its appearance was drafty because the second floor was open to it, having a balcony around the back and sides of the room and stair cases at either side. The front wall was one giant widow offering a fantastic view of the land beyond.

"House, music please; Owl City, Vanilla Twilight." He 'asked' the house computer to play. It wasn't sentient, it didn't even talk back unless necessary but his mother had programed it so it would only respond if you asked it nicely. It was a ploy to get manners into him and his sister at an early age. It worked perfectly as it was a machine and unresponsive to tantrums or emotional pleads.

Relaxing to the dreamy music he sat down on a comfy sofa facing the window to watch the sun continue to rise as he ate and drank.

How long had he been sitting there? At least an hour. The sound of footsteps had woken him from his trance like state. He turned to see his mother; Jade Phelps. Even though age was begging to take its toll she was still a drop dead gorges woman and his farther Alexander knew it. They still loved each other deeply, the fact they still had an active sex life was a testament to that. The hitch however was that they weren't technically married, just engaged. It was something to do with the over expectation of responsibility in marriage, that and Alexander considered it the last legal form of slavery on earth. It helped as his farther was most certainly not the most responsible person around; the evil monologues he had let off as people entered his work shop were at the lower end of that scale.

"You're up early." She said as she sat down beside him.

"Bloody alarm clock went off. Must have set it by accident last night. What about you?" He rested his head on his mother's shoulder, still a little sleepy. "You're usually still uh, practicing… nocturnal activities." He said with a cheeky smile tugging at his lips.

His mother gave him a light slap on the shoulder. "You're not supposed to know about that kind of thing yet." She tried to keep a straight face but he would have noun of that.

"And you're avoiding the question. If you do not compile I will take you to my torture chamber and pull out your teeth one by one!" His mockingly antagonistic stare got her to crack a smile.

Unfortunately it was short lived. She sighed. "He got a call last night; another contract."

A frown came to his face. When she said 'contract' in that context he knew it had nothing to do with Aquila industries. While Alexander did own a multibillion pound company the way the company was set up by his now late grand farther meant executives didn't even get half of what they would in other companies. A lot of the money made was funnelled back into the company, especially the research division.

A lot of his family's money came instead from the 'contracts' Alexander worked. Being technically skilled, physically fit and having a craving for excitement he took on odd jobs for many unique situations. Some would say he was out playing mercenary. He didn't do anything illegal and most certainly nothing unethical, it often didn't even require fighting as some jobs were just security for science groups wondering into dangerous territory, but it meant if that strange man in a black coat turned up with that letter one day it would be a lot less noble then if he were an ordinary soldier, a fireman or something along those lines. That and he was away from home weeks at a time and it often required his attention at the drop of a hat, though it only ever happened two or three times a year.

Unfortunately the news broke the dreamy good mood he was in. "I'm going to get dressed." He said as he got up and headed back to his room.

A quick refreshing shower and after a long time spent reading while waiting for his hair to dry he began to dress for the day. His usual attire consisted of blue jeans, a black t-shirt complete with menacing skull, heavy walking boots with steal toe caps and of course his hat. The dark brown leather rimed hat had errant him many cowboy and Indianan Jones puns but he didn't mind. It made him unique in a way, it made him stick out, for better or for worse. He liked being unusual.

He looked at himself in his dresser mirror. He could only hold in a smile so long. "I'm William James Phelps Highlander, and bloody proud of it. I am me!" He could only laugh at how ridicules he sounded.

The moment of silliness restored his good mood. His dad would come back home, he always did. Then they would go somewhere like Malta for a week or two. As was his norm. 'Life is nowhere near perfect; it's a mess. It's what you make out of it that counts.' The words of his grand farther echoed through his head and he decided, today would be a good day.

He briefly took note of the calendar displaying a number of famous fighter planes. It was the fourteenth of September, twenty forty eight. Almost twenty years since the major coup against the ruling Tory Government that resulted in some major reformations in the laws of England and the UK, for the better as well. The NHS (national health service) and education systems were restored to a thriving condition they had not been in, in years. Their navy, air force and army were now thrice their previous size, a force to be reckoned with that they had not been in decades. The bankers who had gotten the country into a recession years earlier had been given a good boot up the ass and were actually behaving themselves, not taking to many risks and actually paying full taxes. Production and exports were at an all-time high as the ship building industry in Britain was bought back to life. Of course what was good for one was good for ones allies; the UK had dropped out of the EU and consolidated the Commonwealth resulting in Australia, India, Canada and many African countries gaining in prowess. Of course this boosted competition with America, China and Russia resulting in surge of new technology. Of course it wasn't all smiles and sunshine. The Middle East was beginning to feel threatened by the growth, tensions in North and South Korea were high as both were ramping up weapons production, Iran was threatening Israel with nuclear weapons, the UN as in a sorry state and there were numerous other powder kegs waiting to blow. That was the drawback of society today; you need not worry for your food or health but disaster on unimaginable scale was always hidden around the corner. All it took was one stupid man or one small mistake and before you knew it the world was on fire.

William grabbed a few items from around his room; his mobile phone, wallet, his Gerber multi tool, a couple of dice, pack of cards, laser pen, lighter, harmonica and other miscellaneous objects. He then descended the stair way towards the front door.

"Mum! I'm going out for a walk!" He called off into the house.

"Alright, be back for diner!" She called back from the living room.

Approaching the front door he grabbed his light camouflage jacket adorning it before setting out on his walk. It was cold, below twenty in fact, but being used to the cool climate so he saw it as simply brisk. Few others would be awake at this time of day; this meant he could wonder in peaceful solitude. As a large part of the land William's dad owned was open to the public he often got told off by strangers for messing around on 'public property'. Idiots didn't know how to read a dammed notice in his opinion. The reason it was made publicly accessible was really a tax dodge of sorts. People thought it was easy being rich and for those who horded their money it was, however the Highlanders had always had a habit of moving it around as much as possible, that way it benefited a larger group of people but with this came a new level of stress in managing it.

The land was actually quite low value as the ground was too unstable for development. A specially designed and placed house like his dad's was fine, but if anything major was built there was a danger of sink holes and subsidence starting to crop up due to the caves there.

He was a lucky kid to have all this to himself. There was his sister as well but these days she rarely left her room, content to vegetate on a diet of internet junk.

Will wondered over to a rocky outcropping, one that he remembered to be larger which was unusual; he knew this piece of land better than anyone, except maybe his farther, and something wasn't right. As he got closer it appeared as if it had collapsed in on itself. He climbed atop the edge of it to get a closer look. The rocks on top were loose but it seemed stable enough. He tapped it firmly with his foot before moving to the centre of the rock. The situation baffled him; there was no excess of rubble and no sign of explosives so that ruled out human intervention.

The situation perplexed him.

Then the ground sifted. He quickly attempted to get off the rock but the ground fell out from underneath him before he could. William entered a state of panic, grabbing anything he could. He was successful in his endeavour; looking below him several meters down a swirling blue, white and greenish vortex absorbed the falling rock. Numerous thoughts filled his head: _Black hole? Worm hole? Portal? What is this thing?_

Unfortunately his rocky handhold gave way and he began to fall. As he passed through the vortex a painful headache overcame him and he soon blacked out.

It was dark. Or was it? William's vision slowly came into focus though not by much, everything was still blurry but he could make out a pair of silhouettes in the ghostly blue light that surrounded him, however there was also something wrong with them but he couldn't put his figure on it.

He soon noticed he was weightless, how strange. Then he noticed he was also upside-down. That was what was wrong with them; the figures were, from his point of view, hanging down. He wondered how he had made such an obvious oversight but put it up to his current state of disorientation. Mental and physical.

William quickly turned his attention back to the two figures. One looked roughly human but the other was far larger and more imposing. He also began to notice they were talking.

"We are quite fortunate." The larger one said with a regal and elderly voice.

The more humanoid one had a strong yet high pitch German accent. "Yes yes, quite fortunate indeed! I can only imagine the difficulties a dragon would have in adjusting to my own world." He sounded rather excited over whatever was happening.

"I still wander… is it best to give him this gift? I can only wonder if it will do more harm than good for him." The lager one queried.

"It was your idea; I do not see why you're complaining." The second said drolly.

The first huffed in displeasure. "I don't see why you can think of these thing so lightly. This gift will surly help him survive where we cannot prevent him passing to but the effect it will have in the long run… it will breed distrust and insecurity for whatever allies he forms."

"We already discussed this. William is a capable individual if a bit rash at times. While I could have chosen a better person for the job we got a fine individual by accident! Besides, whether he uses it or not is up to him." The man countered.

The larger one sighed. "Very well. At least instruct him on its use first."

"Of course! You think me a fool!" He began to muter as he approached him. "HELO! Can you hear me?" He practically shouted at him.

Will could only groan in frustration. The head ache had been exacerbated by the shouting.

"Good! Now, listen carefully; you are being sent to another world. Oh, I also assure you that you are not dead or unconscious. This place is very unlike your own but if you keep a cool head and think things through I have no doubt you will do well!" He held up a strange amulet of some sort. "This can help you survive and navigate the world you are heading to. Wearing it will grant you the body of the dominant native race and grant you a number of abilities. It will also be invisible while worn unless touched, yes? Good. Now do not worry, you will find your way back home eventually but for now you must be patient. This task will take some time." He explained loudly.

Examining the individual he could tell he had a flamboyant heir style. William was sure there was some connection he was failing to make regarding him.

The second larger being approached now. "We are sorry this has fallen to you, but be it as it may we believe you are up to the task. Listen to your heart, let your instincts guide you in desperate situations but remain aware and concise of your surroundings. On your journey you will most likely meet many people, I trust that you will treat each with due discretion. Above all remember this; when the purple and black dragons have undone what the Dark Master has begun then your time will come. Not before, you must stay alive until then. We cannot emphasize how important this is, you are required to help manage the cataclysm. I am sorry this task falls to you but it must be done. Everything before that will simply help prepare you, though be aware that if others fail it may very well mean your failure. If you do this well they may even assist you with your task." He explained solemnly.

William could honestly not make sense of a thing he was talking about apart from one thing and that was a blatant mistake on the part of the talker. He groaned as he wrestled with the headache. "You're mistaken; it didn't fall to me… I fell into it. Fucking sink hole."

For a moment there was silence then the smaller one began to laugh flamboyantly. "It did say in his book he had a good sense of humour!"

The larger one began to shake what Will guessed was its head and chuckled a little. "Traveling through the portal is no doubt putting strain on your body. My counterpart is correct about you… if you indeed have the will power to make a mockery of my advice." He ended on a sour note.

"Yes. One can say he is the most _Will_ powered individual we have met." The human sized one said, chuckling at his own joke.

William rolled his eyes. "That was terrible! Please, your making my head hurt more." He grumbled humorously. The absurdness of his situation was totally bizarre. For whatever reason he simply had to laugh at it. He then realised he was probably delirious or dreaming so he played along with it for now.

"Still I must insist we hurry this along. We cannot hold you here too much longer; it would be dangerous for all of us." The larger one reminded.

"Of course, worry not my friend." The smaller spoke before approaching.

When he reached William he almost couldn't believe his eyes. Standing before him was the most famous physicist in human history… well, so far. "Albert Einstein! I must be dreaming or… I'm dead. Is this heaven? No, wait… I'm an atheist; I should be going to that other place… but it ain't hot enough for that." He reasoned lucidly.

The eccentric scientist simply rolled his eyes. "I told you, you are not dead or unconscious, pay more attention!" He proceeded to place the amulet in Williams hand and close Will's hand around it with his own. "I cannot emphasize how important it is you keep hold of this, do not let it go!" He enforced the statement with a hard glair.

For whatever reason William began to feel how serious the situation was. "I, I won't." He promised.

"Good. Now we shall send you on your way. I bid you good luck in the events to come."

"As do I. Remember what we have told you and hopefully you will do fine." The larger one spoke. "May the Ancestors be with you."

For some reason the statement didn't exactly fill him with confidence. "I will." The two words were all he could muster before he blacked out again.

Tweeting. Torturous tweeting. Right now for the fourteen year old boy lying near to the infernal creature creating it; that was all that existed. Unfortunately this noise could not be silence by a button… however it could be scared away. Will grunted loudly and aggressively. There was a final tweet before the flapping of wings signalled the evacuation of the bird.

Slowly William rolled over on to his back and groaning from discomfort he sat up. Carefully he checked to see if anything was broken and was relieved to find only bruises.

Looking around he found himself surrounded by unusual foliage. The climate was also too warm for autumn in England. "What have you gotten yourself into now Will." He mumbled to himself.

He got up to explore the surrounding area but stopped when he felt something slip out of his hand. He looked down to see the amulet he was given disproving the idea what had happened was a dream. _'Or am I still in it?'_ He wandered.

Cautiously he picked it up. It was very well crafted, he could tell that much. It was made of some dark gold like metal but not one he was familiar with. In the centre of the circular part there was a polished green gem of some description flanked by two smaller jet black gems. A number of patterns and runes engraved into the metal seemed to wave their way around the gems. The chain that the pendant peace was attached to was sturdy yet smooth and no doubt comfortable. In fact the whole thing seemed surprisingly light, like it was made of plastic instead of the metal its cold texture resembled.

Slowly, and feeling slightly foolish as he did so, William began to lift the amulet over his head to put it on. As soon as he had released it from his hand a most peculiar tingling sensation overcame him. Then a green mist began to materialise from the amulet. Panicking he tried to grab and remove it but the mist was already surrounding him. A strange sense of vertigo overcame him; an out of body experience would have been the best description. As quickly as it had appeared the mist dissipated and his senses had returned to him but something wasn't right…

The whole ordeal had only lasted moments despite the experience making it feel longer then it was.

As he tried to stand up he toppled over onto his bum but this was from no sense of disorientation but rather because his legs refused to move in the manor he wanted them to. There was also something beneath him but he also registered its feeling of himself sitting on it. At first he thought it should have been one of his legs but his sense of perception told him they were resting on the ground elsewhere. He rolled back over so he was now resting on his hands and knees… or rather what should have been his hands and knees. He realised his feet were resting flat on the ground rather comfortably and his arms were stretched out beneath him. For the first time he looked down to see his hands. Unfortunately they weren't there but something else was that made him recoil in shock. He was looking at a pair of whit scaly appendages each with four digits tipped with yellow talons. He had claws.

As he stared in shock at the two sets of claws he noticed something that reminded him to count his blessings. The two inner most digits were opposable to the other three. Thumbs, or in this case the equivalent of, were a thing he had resigned long ago he could not live without.

Slowly he began to examine the rest of his body he realised he had the body of a large reptilian quadruped. He was covered in white scales with a softer light blue underbelly and a bony yellow ridge, the same colour as his claws, running down his spine. Another distinctive feature was the pair of bat like wings extending from his back hanging limply, the webbing of which was the same blue colour as his chest section. Crossing his eyes he could also see a long snout rather than a nose and flat mouth.

The only creature he could think of that even roughly resembled his current state was, of course, a dragon.

The revelation was quite off balancing for Will, but slowly he began to investigate this new body. The addition of two new limbs and a tail would take some getting used to. The repositioning of his original four however was less of a challenge… or it would have been if not for the fact he kept tripping over his own tail. Eventually he gained enough control over his new body to walk comfortably, he knew further control would come time but understanding this didn't stop it from annoying him.

"I must look like a right fool." William murmured to himself as he awkwardly attempted to move around.

Slowly he began to examine the surrounding area and spotted a calm stream not too far away. Approaching it slowly he looked over the lip of the stream to see a scaly white face staring back at him. His eyes were the same icy blue as before which was a little comforting but that was about the only similarity. He now had a long, sleek but angular muzzle in place of a nose and the elongated mouth that came with it was lined with sharp, pearly white teeth the largest of which were a little shorter than his human fingers. Over the back of his angular head there was now a row of seven dagger like yellow horns. The centre most was the largest, the left and right most ones being a fraction smaller and the reaming four smallest being in two pears each between the three others. It almost resembled an elongated crown of sorts, the thought of which left him a little chuffed.

He continued to examine himself and his reflection even going so far as to, carefully, use one claw to lift his lip and closely inspect his gums and now forked tongue. After examine a few more private aspects of his new physiology he decided that as far as he could tell he was a perfectly healthy and rather dashing dragon. Of course having no comparison he was forced to limit his expectations.

Then he caught himself doing what he was doing. He shook his head in disbelief. "This is… INSANE!" He shouted in a maddened moment of thought. Then he began to repeatedly poke his own arm. "Okay… not a dream then… maybe."

Then he noticed something. The medallion was gone. Panicked he began to grab at his neck and look around until he felt it with his hand hanging there. He nearly recoiled in surprise as it briefly rematerialized. The words began to come back to him, how the thing would disappear whilst worn. He considered removing it and seeing if he reverted to a human form but weighed up the options in his head but decided against it, he had only just adjusted to this body and readjustment combined with the disorientation of the transformation made the idea unappealing.

With a sigh he turned away from the stream and towards the high ground, he needed to know where he was after all. Fortunately there was a nearby and fairly climbable looking tree on a hill that cleared the tree line. As Will approached he attempted moving at different speeds but it was uncomfortable, clumsy and felt unnatural.

Still he continued onwards and began to climb the tree. The claws would have made this easer if it weren't for his lack of experience in a quadruped body. However his efforts were well rewarded in the form of a fantastic view of the surrounding land. Though to his dismay he did not recognise the land scape. The foliage was all wrong. There were mountains and cliff left right and centre. A number of large lakes, some connected by rivers that dotted the area. The most dominating feature of all however was a city off in the distance.

He couldn't tell much from this distance but it appeared to be constructed out of creamy white stone with many circular towers topped by domed roves. Like everything else here he did not recognise the architecture.

William bowed his head and finally accepted the words of Einstein and that other strange person. He was in another world. He was of course still sceptical but the evidence so far pointed to the existence of some form of; _'Adaptive energy conversion and projection.'_ Will sniggered to himself over the excessive use of words. "…in other words; freaking magic!" He yelled out loud.

He decided the city was his best option… or potentially worst if dragons were seen as monsters around here. Still, he could revert back to his normal form before then but even then civilisation was almost as risky as the wilderness especially with little to no back ground information. Unfortunately he had to do something before dark and that city was the best chance for a warm bed and a hot meal.

Will looked around for the easiest way down and out of the tree. As he twisted around to look he felt his wing catch on something. It was nothing to worry about but it did give him an idea. He had wings! Moving himself to a relatively clear part of the tree he began to experiment with opening, closing and moving his new wings. Like with the running it felt awkward but he believed he could at least glide down to the ground.

He quickly learnt that his confidence was over inflated. While his 'glide' could be described in many ways graceful was not one of them. He managed to keep himself from dropping like a stone but that was about it. He crashed into multiple branches on the way down not being able to keep on a straight line away from the tree. When he hit the ground head first "Ow" was about the extent of his verbal ability.

After brushing himself off and reorienting his senses William began to walk in the direction of the city. However as he was only a few meters away from the tree a groaning sound caught his attention, the sort you would hear when putting too much stress on thick wood. Slowly he turned his head and immediately thought something was wrong with the positioning with the tree.

Again it began to groan but this time it did not stop. Will began to back away as fast as he dared. The tree continued to move and warp until it became roughly humanoid in shape. Then it turned.

He stared in a confusing mix of curiosity and concern at the quickly changing tree. When it finished turning a pair of malevolent glowing yellow eyes stared back at him, suspended above a gaping maw lined with sharp teeth formed from splintered wood. It simply stood there for a moment. The tension felt thick enough to need a chain saw to cut. He wasn't the sort to get scared, not in the traditional sense anyway. But like any other creature he had a drive for self-preservation and that drive was running at an all-time high, telling him to get the hell out of there.

Then it roared at Will. He dared not stand there a second longer and scarpered in the opposite direction. Unfortunately whatever kind of tree this was it wasn't the usual kind and it began to stomp after him in hot pursuit of the creature who dared to harm it even in the most mundane way.

William did his best to stay ahead of the creature but it was not easy considering the thick undergrowth. Then a thought struck him, not one of much use but it carried some bitter hummer regarding the situation. "I'm being chased by a bloody Ent!"

The 'Ent' continued its pursuit simply smashing aside lesser trees to get to its enemy. Will continued the chase for at least a minuet and was now rather comfortable with running but it was not to last. Or at least that's what a cliff decided when he almost ran over it.

The cliff while not particularly extensive in size was still tall enough to prove a fatal jump. "Well shit." He cursed. Looking around he found he could not be in a worse predicament; the cliff curved back around meaning that running off in either direction would result in him being cut off by the tree monster.

This left him with one option and a fast closing widow of opportunity. The creature was now at the tree line and was staring at him clearly amused by the situation William had worked himself into. Slowly he advanced, a menacing grin on its 'face'.

Will had no other choice. He turned towards empty space. "Well, here goes nothing". He jumped.

The air rushed past him at a seemingly slow pace. His whit wings with blue webbing flailing in the wind, trying to catch the air. For some reason a profound sense of calm washed over him and he relaxed, narrowing his body; stabilising it. Then, at the last moment, he opened them halting his decent and used momentum to send himself into an upward ark. When he began to slow he flapped his wings a couple of times and then levelled out.

The whole ordeal was borderline surreal. His mind began to calm and analyse the situation. It was as if some alien instinct was asserting itself. Carefully he began to experiment by angling his wings in ways that felt 'natural'. He soon got the hang of slow assents, controlled descents and banking left or right.

Then it hit him as if it were a brick wall. "I'm flying." He muttered to himself. He looked around at the bird's eye view of the land around, no; below him. There were fields, large clumps of forest and winding rivers along with their tributes like the veins and arteries of the land. He began to laugh almost uncontrollably. "I'm flying! I'm freaking flying!" He cried out in giddy joy.

He had been airborne before of course, his farther had occasionally hired a private jet when he deemed it appropriate to bring his family on business trips and he was no stranger to the rebooted line of Concord passenger planes. He had even been sky diving twice but that wasn't flying, it was falling in style and however fun it just wasn't the same as this; truly flying, with full control, no parachute.

Looking around he saw that, fortunately, he had not diverted course to far away from the city meaning he needn't double back. He adjusted his direction so he was gliding in the direction of the city. The fact he had managed to gain, an at least armature, handle on flying so fast sparked up his confidence and pride.

As he continued to fly he decided a little experimentation was in order and began to attempt a few simple areal manoeuvres. A shallow dive and some tight terns if not particularly graceful first time around were easy to master. Steep assents, faster dives and even a cork screw spin later came, if a little awkward at first. However his luck ran out on his attempt of a loop the loop, his ark collapsing when he began to curve upside down. The hastily saved fall discouraged him from trying it again. That and he was begging to get tiered, his stamina had not yet adapted to flying he realised and restrained his desire to try new things, diverting his attention to getting to the city before night fall.

The sun was setting when Will decided he had best land and continue to approach the city on foot where it would be harder to be spotted. Seeing a large empty clearing about a mile away from the city walls Will began to fly low over the tree tops towards it. He thought about his landing carefully as he approached, not wanting to break a leg and end up in a sticky situation. He slowed his speed as much as possible and flew at as shallow a decline as he could. His sky diving experience would hopefully prepare him for some of it but two extra legs would make a large difference. He extended his legs but kept the knees bent and as soon as he felt the ground he began to gallop. It was messy and he ended up landed on his face but considering it was his first time and he wasn't tumbling head over tail so he thought it was pretty good.

After he stopped panting and recuperated his strength he began to walk in the direction of the city. He worried about the reactions of whoever lived there, he was surly a stranger to them. However upon his arrival at the walls his concerns were uprooted and replaced. It was getting dark and there were no lights coming from the city. No lights meant no people… or at the very least human people, lacking night vision.

William decided it best not to dwell on potentially absurd ideas and investigate further before speculating further, though the already prominent levels of craziness today made him think twice about that. He wandered around the edge of the wall to the nearest gate way. Strangely it was open but there were no guards. Cautiously he wandered forward, entering the city. It was largely in prime condition, it was no ruin he was looking at but the wilting flower beds and excess of weeds indicated no one had been here for a while, if he had to guess; a number of months, maybe even a year or two. It was abandoned. However the residence had obviously not been driven away by war but rather the threat of it or some other disaster. Needless to say his attention was on an all-time high, especially after his recent encounter.

He continued to trudge through the city, examining the architecture and stray objects that littered the city. One thing that was affirming was the multiple depictions of dragons in a positive light and the way most of the architecture was clearly arranged for access by creatures one would associate with the traditional size of a full grown dragon. However the city was clearly built with smaller creatures in mind as well witch was good as it meant multiple intelligent creatures living alongside each other… or a totalitarian cast based society run by these dragons. William wasn't one to skimp on the less then desirable possibilities.

He looked to the horizon and saw the sun would soon be down. He quickly drew a line between night times and seemingly abandoned cities that in turn connected to the many horror films and games he had been exposed to. "Okay… zombie survival video game based common sense says; get inside and secure now!" He mumbled to himself before looking for a suitable makeshift safe house.

After wondering around this part of the city a while he decided that off the ground would be best so he decided to set up in one of the towers. One reasonably deep into the city but at the same time not too far from the perimeter wall, tall enough to be safely secluded from the ground yet not so tall as it would attract attention.

Keeping his eyes peeled he entered the building at the bottom of tower being carful his claws did not touch the flaw creating the clopping noise that was beginning to annoy him in more ways then one. Not only was it annoying but it was potential giving away his position so he had to curl his digits upward to avoid it which was in turn physically awkward.

After searching the building for about a minuet he finally found the stair case and ascended. Most of the rooms he passed by were largely empty but he was fortunate enough to find a few scattered commodities such as wool blankets and some now mouldy pillows. He had slept with worse before.

Will gathered the supplies on the third from top floor under the curving stairwell. He then barricaded the stairwell with furniture knowing it would at the very least give him warning of anyone trying to get in. It didn't impair his ability escape either as he could glide out the windows for a hasty getaway if needed.

Finally he slumped down on his meagre pile of comforts to calm down and review the day's events. Once again he held the amulet in his hand examining it briefly again. He decided to experiment with taking it off. Once again the green mist surrounded him and he was briefly without a body but vaguely knowing what to expect he came out of it better then before.

William looked down at his hands and reached up to his face to feel soft skin instead of slippery scales. He was actually quite relieved as he had suspicions he may not have transformed back by simply removing the strange peace of jewellery. He sighed and could only wonder at the absurdity of his situation. He was in an unknown land sent here to do an unknown task by one the most brilliant minds in human history and now he could turn into a dragon and fly. Naturally the only thing he could do was laugh his head off.

His maddened cackling was interrupted by a set of musical chimes he easily identified as his mobile telling him he had a text message. It caught him by surprise that the thing worked out here. Looking at it, it even told him he had full signal strength, something he could never get the blasted thing to do. He opened the message, it read:

_Where are you Will?_

_Getting worried. _

_Mum X_

The message awoke new worries in William's mind. He was told he would be here a while, a long while. He had gone off without warning before but only ever for a few nights. His mother would worry, the rest of his family less so as they had plenty of distractions but Jade was around the house all day only working small jobs over the internet and keeping the house in order. She also played a large role in helping keep his own life in order, which Will had to admit he was never really good at. His personal organisational skills were terrible as he tended to do what he liked when he liked, ignoring time tables and lacking any structure to his days. A bitter sweet smile tugged at his face. He sighed and snapped out of his temporary stupor.

He quickly typed a return message.

_Staying round a friend's house. _

_New project, will be away for a while. _

_Love Will_

He sent it and knew he was only buying his mother a limited amount of stress free time and that was if the message even got through. William often did things like that, going round a friend's house to construct some contraption or another for fun. He slipped the phone back into his pocket.

Will looked back to the peace of jewellery in his hand and moved to put it back on and once again the mist enveloped him. He would need to be ready to fight or to fly if trouble reared its head. Besides, he was pretty sure sleeping in the dragon body would be more comfortable under the circumstances.

But before he got to his improvised bed something shiny caught his eye. He turned to see a rickety old dresser with an oval shaped mirror on top. For whatever reason it peaked his curiosity and he approached. The mirror was grimy and covered in dust so hardly useable so Will searched for a rag or piece of cloth. As soon as he found one he wiped away the dirt that had accumulated over however long it had been sitting there unattended rendering it once again usable. He looked at himself once again in his dragon form as he did earlier that day, the image less distorted due to the lack of shimmering water. Once again he found himself examining this new body with a fascination; the scales, the claws, the wings and the teeth… it was all so new and different. He was in the body of a predator.

Finally he stopped fidgeting or pulling faces at himself and began to just stare. He was different but at the same time he wasn't, some how he felt the image suited him. Then the foolhardy words he spoke this morning came back to him. "I am… who I am. I am me." He could not help but grin. Eventually though he settled down heading for his 'nest' as he supposed it would be more appropriate to call at the moment.

Taking one last look out the window at the sun setting over the beautiful if empty city he could not help but worry for the future. He drew the blankets close to his now scaly skin in preparation for a possibly cold night. He knew he would not fall asleep fast due to the information and ideas flooding his mind but eventually he did. However just before he drifted off he briefly had the most bizarre fleeting sensation that someone was watching him.

He was right.

Miles away in an aging temple a large red dragon, Ignitus the fire Guardian, starred into the pool of visions. As usual all he saw were drips and drabs but he did see a young white dragon a little older than Spyro acting most strangely. He saw how he was being chased one moment, flying the next, how he seemingly stumbled upon the abandoned city of Warfang and how he settled into slumber.

The appearance of a white dragon was most unusual. White dragons usually have control over the element of light, they could do many interesting things and were particularly formidable in a fight. Unfortunately they were rare and uncommon, largely because it was a terribly difficult power to master or control. There were many incidents were their powers lead to accidental deaths or harm resulting in their exile from whatever group they were living with and there were even a number of cases where these accidents resulted in their own deaths as well. Though admittedly, while rare and powerful they were certainly not nearly as rare or powerful as the Purple dragon.

However this dragon was also unusual for a white dragon as he had two other colours upon his body. From what was told in the scrolls and Ignitus's own single encounter with a white dragon they were supposed to be all white except for the eyes which were unique to the individual.

The young dragon was quite clearly lost and inexperienced, if was left to wander too long he would no doubt encounter a group of apes or worse resulting in his eventual demise. The fact the pool of visions was showing him this meant he was probably supposed to do something about it and even this wasn't the case he felt duty bound as a Guardian to do so. Spyro would hopefully soon return from rescuing Volteer. It would be an ideal time to send Spyro to collect this dragon and bring him back to the temple; it would make good practice for him until he could locate the next of the captive Guardians.

Until then he thought it best to make like his current cause for concern and hunker down for some rest, there was little he could do until Spyro returned anyway. And so he made himself comfortable and slept like a rock.

A very noisy rock.

* * *

><p>Author's notes: Okay, so… this is my first fanfic to include magical elements. To be honest I don't care if your kind or not in the reviews because I would like to know what you honestly think, though your reaction to these first few chapters will probably decide whether or not I stick to the story or get swept away by the next idea that pops into my head. So please, tell me what you think; what's my writing style like. Am I making regular spelling or grammar errors (If so please point them out)? Do you think my portrayal of characters is accurate? Are my jokes funny? You know; the details. I'm even open to suggestions.<p>

So, I hope you enjoy and if enough of you do I'll keep writing.

* * *

><p>Additional note: This chapter was edited on the 1604/2012. Nothing major but just adjusting details, correcting grammatical or spelling mistakes and rewording a few sentences so they sound smoother.


	2. Jack Rabbits and Dynamite

Conciseness danced around William's sleeping mind, always tempting him yet remaining out of reach. Slowly he noticed more and more as he awakened that something was not right. It started when he tried to wet his lips with his tongue but he found his tongue felt thinner and could stretch further than it should as did his lips, beyond which his skin didn't feel quite right; too firm and smooth. Then when he shifted he realised his entire body didn't feel right.

Then the memories came flooding back. "Oh shit. That had better be some kind of dream…" He mumbled before his eyes snapped open and began to examine the musty room he had fallen asleep in the previous night. "Great." He moaned. "That'll teach me to wish my life was more exciting."

William got up and began to stretch, beyond that he still had no idea where he was or what he was going to do. Resting his fore legs on one of the window ledges he began to examine the city. It was expansive and while not nearly as expansive as larger cities such as London, Paris or New York it was a lot better planed out and crafted by the looks of things. Considering it was practically all made of carved stone it was an impressive feat of engineering.

Tentatively he climbed up onto the ledge with the intention of using it as a jumping off point for flying. Looking down he saw he had a lot less height and by consequence time to stabilise his flight before a potentially messy landing. Not his best example of fore sight in choosing an inconspicuous place to bunk for the night. He knew a take off without a significant drop to start off with, while less inevitably deadly, would be a little trickier to master without sustaining injury. Taking a deep breath he loosened his wings and jumped. As soon as he gained a decent amount of momentum from the fall he spread his wings and glided to a nearby roof top landing roughly.

Looking back along his flight path he felt satisfied with the rough manoeuvre. It surprised him that the sudden impact of air against his wings did not hurt him more as such sudden yanking of his arms might. He shrugged the thought aside as a minor note of his new anatomy.

Looking around he still had no idea of where he was and the events that led up to the current state of this city. The most available solution to this problem appealed to William greatly; explore the city and hope to find clues. A decent challenge.

He looked around to see if he could find the largest building. It very wasn't hard to do as he was standing on top of a three story building which appeared to be the average height for a building here. The reason for looking for the largest building was that chances were it would be the main administration centre… or maybe it would be a chapel of sorts. Either way it was a starting point to knowing where he was, though the latter would be less useful in his opinion; lacking official documents.

Unfortunately this presented another problem; how to get there. He could try and fly but then he ran the risk of drawing unwanted attention. Navigating the streets would be safer but the city was only vaguely organised in a series of circles and that was only the more central district.

The solution, he finally realised, was what he was standing on. He would still need to be careful and still need to plan ahead a little but a not crippling so like with the other two options. He would simply jump from roof to roof, giving him an overview of the streets and maintaining a view of the city that would allow him to navigate.

And so William lined himself up with the adjacent building, began to sprint towards it, then at the edge of the roof top he jumped and spread his wings to maintain his brief flight that little bit longer.

He landed on the opposite building with ease and looking back over the gap he felt a burst of pride over the fact he was mastering his new body quickly. He quickly moved on however. One thing he was beginning to realise though was that dragons were obviously not hikers and his pace was significantly slower then that of a human. In fact, thinking about it he reckoned his dragon form only came up to the height of his human shoulder. Still, he padded along at a steady rate. It would be a long walk and a lot of jumps after all and he needed to balance speed and stamina.

Ignitus was glad when Spyro returned unharmed late the previous night and by the sounds wafting out of the training room he was almost finished with Volteer's early morning training session. The sound of a thunderstorm going off in the training room confirmed his theory, being the tell tail sign of an electrical fury.

Sure enough Spyro emerged from the training room, the statue behind him steadily raising itself back into place. Many would have described the young purple scaled dragon as hansom or even dashing though due to a decent sense of modesty and humility he would never say so himself. His eyes betrayed him as the kind and sensitive sort through hidden behind them was a strong sense of resolve. However he was also looking mildly pleased with himself right now, no doubt due to his successes in the training room.

Volteer was close behind babbling away as usual. "Fantastic! Flabbergasting! Exceptional work! Never have I seen anyone master an element so quickly. The powers of the Purple dragon are in no way exaggerated."

"Please Volteer, try not to over crowd him with praise; we don't want another…" Ignitus trailed off, "well, you know what I mean." He finished cryptically.

"Ah, of course Ignitus." Volteer said, immediately straightening out.

This brief exchange confused Spyro and he wanted to ask what he meant but Ignitus had already changed the subject.

"Now, to business; last night I made a rather interesting discovery in the pool of visions. The ancestors seem to think it important for me to know there is a young white dragon on the loose." He explained.

Volteer perked up once again. "What? How improbable yet delightfully surprising! There have been no sightings of a white dragon in decades! Unsubstantiated rumours of course but never…"

Ignitus cut him off. "Yes Volteer it is surprising but our primary concern is to bring him back here safely, not to debate his appearance."

Sparx took this moment to pipe up. "Hay! You already have Purple boy here why do you need him? Isn't spyro meant to be an all-powerful purple whatsit or something? Why do we need him?"

Ignitus sighed. "Yes, as a purple dragon Spyro has many powerful abilities but he most certainly is not all-powerful. Also, lacking necessary experience and training he can only access a fraction of that power. White dragons while not as powerful as purple ones have the ability to control the elemental powers of light. This skill is particularly dangerous if used improperly so it is imperative we find him for his own good and make sure Cynder does not find him and somehow use his powers against us." He explained long-windedly.

Spyro nodded in confirmation though still slightly confused. "Okay… I don't see why light can be so dangerous but I'll see if I can find him. Where is he? Where do I start looking?"

"From what I have seen of him he is currently taking refuge in the abandoned dragon city of Warfang, specifically in one of its many towers." He continued to explain.

This information sent Spyro's head spinning. "Dragon _city_!" He of course didn't know that dragons were the sort to dwell in cities.

Ignitus nodded. "Yes, it was constructed long ago by the Moles in honour of our actions in keeping the peace and our friendship with them. Until recently it was the centre of our civilisation but soon after Cynder began her reign of terror it was abandoned, its population scattered across the lands and retreated into hiding. The moles that used to inhabit the city alongside the dragons now live in the vast caverns below only occasionally surfacing to ensure no vile creatures have taken up residents there. Even now in its abandonment it is still a sight to behold…"

Spyro nodded in understanding, Ignitus made it feel as if he were about to tread on sacred ground. "So; how do I get there? Which way is it?" This was something he had to see.

"Fortunately it is not far from here; a couple of hours flight to the south east. Now hurry, I fear time is still against us." Ignitus urged.

"Don't worry, you can count on me. Come on Sparx…" He reassured as he began to leave.

"Frog-weed infested swamps, frozen waste lands, abandoned cities… we always go to such nice places…" Sparx commented sarcastically, closely following Spyro out to the main balcony to depart.

William cleared yet another street, moving quickly but quietly to the next ledge looking around for potential tree monsters or similar. Seeing that the coast was clear he backed up a little and bounded over the gap for the umpteenth time today. Occasional he would come across a stray statue, courtyard or garden; stopping to admire it or even attempting to read whatever notations were around regarding what the feature was in memory of but failed to do so due to not recognising the language it was written in. That caused him considerable annoyance as when he did reach his destination it would mean he would most lightly have to find some way of deciphering the documents there. Any other day he might have considered it an enjoyable challenge but he felt that for whatever reason he was short on time. Then again, he really didn't have too much patience for languages.

He continued for another couple of leaps but something distracted him, specifically someone talking. "…ha, don't make me laugh, a couple of great oafs like you owning a city? What do ya' take me for? A fool?"

William decided to investigate; people meant information after all, even if he just stayed out of sight and listened. It was coming from a nearby ally way. He peaked over the edge of a roof top to see four rather improbable humanoid figures. Three of them with their backs to him were wearing crude wooden armour held together by lather and were carrying equally rough and unsharpened swords. The middle one was the largest and most lightly the leader.

"You had better be careful what you say fur ball, the mayor doesn't like rude visitors." The smaller one to the left said.

The remaining person they were threatening was, from here, the strangest individual. He appeared to be a rabbit except for the fact he was comfortably standing on two legs and wearing a gold trimmed maroon coat over a white shirt along with a satchel going from his left shoulder to right hip and a large brown sack resting on the ground, clutched tightly in his left hand. His fur was an uneven brown and he looked rather haggard in appearance but at the same time he seemed alert and well rested.

"Well then, I'll just be on my way and you fellers will have nothing to worry about." He said distastefully as he hulled the sack onto his shoulder.

"Not so fast, you came in so you ave to pay the visiers tax." The middle one said gruffly. "You either pay or we take everythin you have, includin your life."

William got the sense they were now wearing sick smiles on the other side of their heads. He cringed at the uncivilised conduct of the people, trying to heckle the poor feller. They were essentially bullies, and if there was one thing he could not stand it was bullies.

"Right… and how much would this visitor's fee be?" He asked sourly.

"How much you got?" The one on the left asked.

"Hum, let me think…" The rabbit reached down to his right were his satchel covered his side. He pulled out an old gunpowder pistol. "I got a musket ball if ya interested?" He said smirking.

"Stupid rabbit." The leader declared. "You can only kill one of us with that thing."

The rabbit growled. "First of all I ain't some sassy rabbit; I'm a hare. As for only one shot, well; I'll still kill one of ya, may be two if I'm lucky… so who wants to go first?" He dared them.

William stared at the stalemate below for a few moments before deciding to intervene on the side of the hare. Bounding over the top of the roof and impacting on the ground behind the three figures startling them. They wiped around revealing their faces and what William saw he did not like. They were some sort of cross between a baboon and a gorilla… needless to say it was ugly.

"Hope I'm not interrupting anything but it seems you chaps are intent on causing trouble…" He said sternly as he settled into an aggressive stance, hoping to intimidate them a little.

It worked… a little.

"D-D-Dragon!" The right thing cried out in meld of surprise and fear.

The leader growled at him. "Well what are you two waiting for? He's only a whelp, get him!"

As the two smaller ones approached Will his entire thought process was composed of the words: _'Oh crap!'_ He suddenly realised he had thought of none of the potentially harmful consequences of doing the right thing. Fortunately, judging by the weary excretions of the approaching monkey things, he was succeeding in hiding his worries.

Almost by instinct his tongue darted out of his mouth to taste the air; he tasted fear. The taste of intense sweating in the air and the look in their eyes triggered some primal part of his new body encouraged a feral grin to spread across his face causing the things to hesitate. He used this to his advantage by jumping at the one to the left who was closer and seemed more confident making him more of a threat to deal with. William succeeded in knocking him over, pinned his arms with his claws and snapped his maw at the things face, not actually biting him but causing it to drop his sword. Now his opponent was lacking an ability to strike back effectively William released one of his arms and reached under its loose armour, slashing the creature's belly with his new talons.

He was prevented from ending its life when its comrade came at him with sword held high. William rolled away to his left to avoid a swipe but this put his back against a wall. The wounded creature was between him and the other but he doubted the second thing, even if he seemed to be the more skittish, cared for his fallen comrade.

His opponent had now realised he had the upper hand and was grinning like an idiot. Considering his poor options William decided to take a risk. He reared up on his back to legs as if about to pounce but only, to his surprise, let out an aggressive roar. While unexpected, combined with the planed faint it did a good job of startling the thing. His sword was now raised across his fount to fend off an attack; right were William wanted it. Now was the risky part.

As soon as he front legs were back on the ground he bolted forward tackling the gorilla thing from under its guard. He didn't manage to get it onto the floor but that wasn't really necessary. He began to claw away at its sides where its armour did not cover him. It howled in pain and finally toppled over but still tried to swipe at Will with its arms. Timing himself as best he could he jumped onto its chest and used his claws to half strangle, half tear apart its throat.

The creature's movements slowed down dramatically and William realised it was dying. Shocked at what he had done he quickly retreated off of the body, staring dumbly as the creature drew its last gurgling breaths. Sure he had been in brawls with bullies before, even play fighting and paint balling with a few of his friends on occasion… but killing? He had never killed something that could talk before… heck, probably nothing larger than a bug.

His unhinged state of mind was broken by a howl of anger, he snapped around to see the much larger staring him angrily. "You! You killed my men! I'll make you pay fer that!"

William tensed up again, his attention now focused on the larger more threatening target. He quickly established he would have to be light on his feet as one hit from the things much larger sword would likely put him to bed… permanently.

Unnerved by the way it just sat there staring at him rather than charging and attacking he began to back away from the leader knowing he would need room to manoeuvre. Then, as reached some critical point a vial grin of disfigured teeth emerged from the things face. He withdrew a red stick with a fuse attached, struck the fuse against a peace of rough sand paper attached to his belt and threw it a Will.

The stick landed right next to his feet, recognising the unusual object as a stick of dynamite stunned him for a moment and unfortunately that was one moment too long. His thoughts racing Will knew he could not escape the blast unscathed as there was no cover in the narrow ally way. So, he took the only reaming option.

He slammed his paw down on the fuse smothering the flame. When he lifted his paw he thanked his blessings that the explosive was of such crude design that it did not incorporate a self-oxidising mixture in the fuse. His dad had taught him well when it came to weapons.

William looked up to see the slightly confused monkey thing and shot him a condescending look. "Is that honestly all you have to throw at me? Badly made tri-nitro-toluene?"

The leader simply glared at him before screaming a war cry and charging.

Will coiled his leg muscles in preparation to jump out of the way but this action was soon rendered unnecessary by a stout bang and the thing crashing to the ground in front of him, groaning in pain before passing out to die.

Looking up he saw the hare with his now smoking pistol. Will could only stare and blink for a few moments at the figure he now noticed was only about half his height. Finally he decided to speak. "Uh, thanks. Rather… anti climatic, but who am I to look a gift horse in the mouth." He allowed himself a sheepish smile.

A moment passed before the hare smirked and cocked his head. "Yeah, thanks to you to I guess. Clumsy oafs would have clobbered me if you hadn't come along. What do I owe ya?" He asked as he slipped his pistol back into his belt concealed by his satchel.

William was a little taken aback by his offer of payment. "Nothing, if you like… though I could use a little information." He asked as he stepped around the dead body of the gorilla thing.

The hare looked at him suspiciously as Will advanced. "What kinda information?"

Will frowned as he thought. He had no idea what passed for normal around here, so far being a dragon didn't seem to rub this guy the wrong way. "Well… I'm new around here, so how about where here is. That would be petty handy for me to know."

The hare's gaze turned from suspicious to quizzical. "You mean you don't even know when you're in your own city? This is the dragon city of Warfang! Or at least it was…"

Will was a little surprised that dragons, opposable claws or not, could build a city but for the moment that was irrelevant. "Letts just say I've come a long way. What's your name by the way?"

The hare's eyes narrowed for a moment, showing he was still suspicious. "Jack. An yours? I've never seen a dragon like you before… then again, you don't see many these days."

William hesitated; unsure if he should give his real name or not. He decided to tell Jack his middle name, not technically a lie but not really the truth. "James, my name's James… and why don't you see many dragons anymore? Judging by the size of this place there should be thousands if not tens of thousands living here."

The hare was more than a little surprised by this. "Damn, you must have come a long way if you don't know about the war. I don't know the details, I try to keep out of the main event, but it started about twelve years ago. Let's think… well, I think the first thing was the attack on the dragon temple; dumb apes smashed the place up good. Smashed all the eggs there, killed half a generation in one night."

Will's eyes widened in shock. "Genocide." He whispered and bitterly at the distasteful information. It took a moment for him to compose himself. "I take it those things are apes?" He pointed a claw at the two now dead creatures.

Jack nodded. "Yeah, the ones who raided the temple but those ones are deserters I think."

"Deserters? There's an organised army of them out there?" He exclaimed in mix of shock and almost humorous surprise.

"Yeah, Cynder's army…" So Jack went on to explain the events of the last decade and a half. He started with the prophesy of the purple dragon, something William thought to be utter nonsense, a notion Jack was inclined to believe in. He then told of the rise of the Dark Master, as his parents had told him, and how he was defeated and imprisoned somehow and somewhere. His force of apes however was never annihilated as they were without leadership and therefore considered no threat. However about twelve years ago they suddenly got organised, attacking the dragon temple and then waging war against the dragons and those who stood with them. It went well for a few years but about three years into the war Cynder, the black dragon and infamous 'Terror of the Skies' showed up. Cynder decimated the dragon forces threw a combination of personal killing skill and cunning tactics. It was also rumoured that recently Cynder had captured three of the Guardians, the unofficial figure heads and leaders of the dragon forces. This had sent almost all the dragons into hiding.

William listened intently and asked questions where appropriate but Jack's understanding of the war was limited to second hand information leaving William dejected from the lack of useful details. Essentially all he got out of it was; stay away from large groups of apes and big black dragons.

Will was now deep in thought, his situation being far from desirable. He had nowhere to go, no reliable source of food until he learnt to hunt, no way of getting home and no idea what to do next.

"So, what ya going to do now?" Jack asked hesitantly.

Will didn't answer for a moment. "Honestly? I have no idea."

"Huh, well… you can tag along with me if you like?" He offered.

Will thought about the offer for a moment. "Okay, not a long term plan but certainly better than sitting here."

This seemed to please Jack. "Great, people are less lightly to try and beat me up if there's a dragon nearby." He said cheerfully. "Even if you are just a whelp."

William snorted but knew that 'whelp' may well have been the correct term for a dragon his age. However at the same time he felt there was something not quite right about the hare. Jack turned his back to attend to his sack. William, being mildly suspicious and even more so curious, looked over his shoulder. He was a little stunned at what he saw; a multitude of house hold items were there from clothing to pots and pans and more. However he also noticed something else; they were all broken, worn out, raged or dirty.

It was not hard for Will to put two and two together. "You're a scavenger!" He exclaimed in mild surprise.

Jack tensed up. "Yeah… what about it?"

Will hesitated for a moment, thinking about it and then shrugged it off. "Nothing really, I suppose. Just surprised… makes sense though. Wondering alone through an empty city, armed."

"Yeah well some of us have got to make a living! I sneak around here once a week picking up anything useful, take it back to my hole in the ground, fix it up and sell it all to one of the hidden refugee camps. It ain't glorious but it's a living!" His defence was border lining on hostile.

William had of course recoiled. "I never said I had a problem with it. In fact recycling is looked highly upon where I come from, which is essentially what you're doing." He assured. "By the looks of the stuff your taking it would've been thrown out anyway if anyone came back. Want not waste not, right?"

Slowly Jack began to nod. "Yeah… that's right. They won't want it so they won't have to worry about it. Speaking of which…" He looked over to the dead apse. "They won't be needing there stuff anymore and I'm sure I could find a buyer for that dynamite!" He said excitedly.

Will watched as the hare excitedly started stuffing the dynamite into his satchel. It unsettled William a little that he was looting a dead corpse but desperate times called for desperate measures, it wasn't as if he was suggesting eating them. When Jack had finished Will decided to at least put the body into a more dignified position at the side of the ally. He moved to do the same with the second one, the one with the crushed throat. It was a rather unhinging experience staring at the dead body, the one he killed but he believed everyone deserved dignity in death, even the worst of people… or things.

However Jack interrupted his train of thought. "Hay, where'd the other one go? I thought there were three?"

"There are three…" He said as he turned around to see only Jack. The ape he had slashed across the belly was gone. "Or rather there was…" His tone sunk to one of deep concern. A loud yell rang out in the distance, an ape war cry. "Shit! He survived!"

"Damn it! Run, follow me!" Jack cried out as he began to sprint on all fours around the corner.

William wasted no time following him. "I hope he knows where he's going…" Will muttered as he sprinted round the corner in tow of the hare. "You do know where you're going right?" He called out.

Spyro was awe struck when he saw the city. On the horizon it looked like it was some kind of rock formation but now he was closer he could only stare wide eyed at it. He almost forgot to flap his wings to maintain altitude.

"Big place…" Was all Sparx could manage.

Spyro nodded in agreement. "Yeah, you said it." He looked over how huge the city was; it looked like it could hold thousands of dragons, no easy task considering their adult size. He could honestly say he had never seen anything so large that was made by people opposed to nature.

"Finding that white thing in there will be impossible! We'll be here for years!" Sparx complained.

Spyro focused on the city as he got closer and noticed Sparx was indeed right. The city was a maze of streets and buildings of all sizes. "Only if he's hiding and I don't see why he would want to do that…"

An ape's war cry caught his attention.

"Well there's your reason to hide." Sparx said snidely.

Spyro began to accelerate towards the noise. "Come on! We need to check it out!"

Sparx gowned in annoyance. "Yes please, let's fly towards the things that are shouting violently and no doubt want to kill us!" His voice was laden with sarcasm.

As Spyro sped towards the direction of the noise he spotted a few groups of apes were now roaming the city. There was another war cry and they began to all converge on the same location. Spyro decided to follow, using the occasional tower to cover his approach from sight.

Eventually he overtook them, wanting to get to where ever they were going first. Soon after the sounds of battle reached his ears, irregular dragon roars the screams of apes and even a loud bang echoed off the surrounding buildings. Seconds later he saw what was making the noises; at a wide dead end street two figures, one large and white the other tall, red and brown, were fighting off a small horde of apes.

As fast as Spyro could he dived down from the sky, ignoring Sparx's pleads and moans over going into battle. Using his fire elemental powers he spread a carpet of flame over a swath of attacking apes before looping back around and landing behind them. Not wasting a moment he leaped onto the nearest one and began to tear it apart with his claws. He delivered a nasty head butt to the next apparently breaking it's spine as it didn't get up.

Another loud bang like before distracted him and he turned to see the brown and red figure, a rabbit he though, holding a smoking gun pointed in the direction of a now dead ape. Spyro didn't waste time wondering why he was helping them but did catch a glimpse of his surprised face.

The white dragon was fighting rather haphazardly showing his inexperience but seemed to be doing well as Spyro saw no major injuries.

He sent a bolt of electricity at an ape to his left before despatching him with a quick swipe across the stomach. Then he rammed another ape into the wall, mauled another with his claws and butted another into the air finishing him off with a jet of fire. It continued like this for about a minute and he was slowly pushed backed into the ally way with the other two.

Then he heard someone call after him. "Hay purple boy!"

He turned to see the rabbit holding a pile of familiar red sticks.

"I throw them you light em!" He called out.

For a second Spyro didn't get his meaning, he tossed the dynamite into the air scattering them over the apes.

"What ya waiting for? Light em!" The rabbit called again.

Then his mind clicked as the idea snapped into place. He nodded and blew a wide but thin flame across the large group of apes. It wasn't enough to do anything more than singe their fur but the dynamite? The cascade of explosions sent the majority of the apes flying only for gravity to slam them back into the unforgiving ground. Spyro and the white dragon quickly dispatched the few that survived the blast, the rest scarpered.

Then, there was silence, the sound of the explosion still ringing in his ears. He calmed himself as he breathed heavily.

"Watch out!" A new voice called and he turned to see an ape that had played dead leap at him but there was no time to react as the sword that was already half way through swinging at him. Then a bolt of yellow blue electricity slammed into the side of ape causing his muscles to spasm and loss control. Unfortunately for Spyro electricity had no effect on momentum and the ape still crashed into him. The ape however was still stunned by the shock and it took little effort on Spyro's part to roll on top of him and bit at his neck killing it.

He spat the coppery tasting blood out in disgust and began looking around for any signs of life. He saw only the white dragon looking rather shocked and confused and the rabbit a little further off quickly stuffing powder and a shot into his pistol.

Spyro began to move towards the white dragon who was still staring into space. "Hay… are you okay?"

The white dragon looked up at him for a moment, locking Spyro's indigo eyes with his cool blue eyes. It was the first good look he had got of the white dragon. He was indeed strange being mostly white with blue covering his wings and chest. The seven straight and sharp horns over his head were yellow, as were his claws, spinal ridge and barbed tail spike, which clashed with the icier colours in a fashion that was rather eye catching. He was also a little sleeker then Spyro and his neck was longer and more snake like compared to his own. Then he simply turned away and began walking towards the rabbit.

The white dragon sat there until the rabbit finally looked up from loading his pistol. "What you lookin at?" The rabbit asked.

The white dragon's reply was rather calm… at first. "Oh nothing, nothing other than an ignoramus of a fool." Then his voice jumped up a notch. "Just you, you idiotic raving rabbit! 'Follow me, follow me, I know where I'm going.' You lead us strait into a dead end!"

"Well it's not my fault you didn't kill that thing properly! And don't forget, I'm no bloody rabbit! I'm a hare! Get it right. Besides, I haven't even been this deep into the city before." The hare said in defence.

The dragon growled. "You said you knew where we were going!"

"And you've been holding out on me! Why didn't you just smoke em all with the lightning in the first place?" The hare stabbed back.

The dragon gave an indignant huff. "Well I didn't even know I could do that till five minutes ago! And what about that dynamite? Where was that?"

"Well I didn't have anything to light it with!"

Sparx was the first to tire of the argument. He flew up in between the twos' faces and shouted. "Are you two done yet? Cause I _really_ don't want to be around when they come back!"

The pair were stunned for a moment by the interruption. The white dragon was the first to snap out of it. "My apologies, I got a little… carried away. My thanks for the assistance but if you don't mind me asking; who are you? I mean, you two that is?" He said politely, correcting himself hastily at the end.

"Uh, my name is Spyro… and this is my brother Sparx. Who are you?" He stated hesitantly.

"My name is James." He gestured towards the hare. "And my acquaintance here is Jack, he's an… adventurer, of sorts that is." Will explained, clearly dressing up the hare as something more presentable than who he really was.

The hare stared at William quizzically. "Adventurer?" Will's response was a sharp look telling him to play along. "Right… yeah, I'm Jack. Don't mistake me for a rabbit of I'll box your horns off. I'm a hare." He threatened rather casually.

William cleared his throat again to bring attention back to him. "So, may I inquire to why you decided to assist us, a pair of total strangers?"

Spyro had to think for a moment. He should probably tell the truth but at the same time he knew it would sound kind of creepy to be told he had been sent to find the white dragon because of a vision in a pool of water. In the end however he decided the truth was best. "Actually I was sent to find you, well I didn't know exactly who you were but… it's complicated."

William frowned and tensed up making Spyro uncomfortable. "If you cannot explain the situation easily then you obviously do not understand it very well yourself. You will need to do a bit more convincing to get me to come, unless you plan to take more… drastic action." He said wearily, his gaze focused on Spyro.

Jack taped Will on his forward shoulder and Will leant down to listen more closely but not taking his eyes off of Spyro. Jack began to whisper to him. "James, he's purple. Remember what I said about the prophecy and stuff? They're meant ta be incredibly powerful; you'd not wana to pick a fight with one."

Spyro could not hear the whispers but he could see the effects. William simply grew more cautious, his eyes narrowing. "Well? What say you? What happens now?" He snapped a little more warily.

Spyro had to take a moment to collect his thoughts but did so quickly, delaying would only cause unneeded suspicion between him and the white dragon. "I was sent by the fire Guardian Ignitus to find you. He saw you wondering the city in the pool of visions and was concerned. After all you are a white dragon and you're meant to be powerful. That sort of thing attracts unwanted attention around here, trust me." He said gesturing to one of the apes.

William seemed to relax a little but was still looking at Spyro suspiciously. "So, where is this Guardian? And what's so special about him?"

"Well Ignitus is waiting at the temple for me to return with you and, well… he's a Guardian. It's his job to look after the eggs of our race, along with the other Guardians that is." He explained as best he could. "I think there's more to his job but I don't know all the details."

William still seemed rather disgruntled. "Fine, I'll go with you. It's not like I have any better options right now." He sighed. "Very well, lead the way."

Despite the lack of positive attitude the decision pleased Spyro greatly. "Okay! Follow me…"

"Actually, wait a second." William turned to the hare who was looking around, wondering what to do next. "Hay, Jack! You want to tag along?"

Jack looked quite surprised. "Wh, why?"

Will shrugged. "Well, it sounds like free food and a warm bed; I thought that might at least get your attention. That and I need someone to watch my back if this purple feller and his friends turn out to have less than pure intentions."

Jack grunted. "I'm a hare, I can eat grass all day for free if need t' and I already got a place to sleep. You're going to have to do better than that."

"Right, and you just happen to have a privet express train leading to your nice warm bed that bypasses all the angry apes in the city you just got us lost in? Well good for you!" He pointed out cheerfully as if it were a fact. "But…" He added a little more enticingly, moving closer so Spyro couldn't hear him. "You said this temple was attacked and abandoned right? Judging by how much our purple acquaintance here knows he's only just moved back in, correct? So chances are there are plenty of things lying around people won't have noticed and won't miss because."

Jack began to nod and then smile. "Alright, you've convinced me! Just one problem; I can't fly."

Will furrowed his brow for a moment. He looked down to his back; the bony ridge that ran down his back was fairly flat and blunt so it would be no obstruction to potential passengers. "Well… I suppose I could give you a lift. Hop on then… no pun intended."

Jack stared at him, rather stunned by the proposition. "You, want me, to ride on your back… while you fly?"

William rolled his eyes. "No the idea is you sit there while I dance around and you yodel to your heart's content. Honestly I have no other ideas on my mind as of present especially with an army of apes crawling around." He said in an affirming tone that in no way ravelled the sarcasm behind them if it weren't for the absurd content of the sentence. The strange and questioning looks he received from all made him roll his eyes. "Oh just jump on already!"

Hesitantly Jack did so and took up a comfortable position behind William's serpent-like neck.

Spyro nodded in approval. "Okay, let's go then." The purple dragon turned and took a short running jump into the air, flapping his wings hard to gain altitude.

Will paid close attention to Spyro as he took off, gauging his movements and copying them in his head. He flexed his wings in preparation with a determined face.

Jack seemed to pick up on this. "Hay, uh… something wrong?"

Will twisted his head around so he could look at the hare clinging to his back. "Oh no… it's just, well, the second time I've ever properly flown."

Jack's eyes went wide with surprise. "Wait, say what?"

Will cocked his head to one side in thought. "Thinking about it it's also the first time I've taken flight without already being in a state of free fall, this should be significantly more tricky… well, taking off that is." Will began to charge forward.

"Ah, stop, no I…!" The Hare cried as Will did so.

Jack tried to protest further as Will jumped into the air, vigorously flapping his wings in determination but Jack's voice was lost in to the wind. While excited deep down William was silently begging this would work and he would not be humiliated in the process as his new friend was no doubt was expecting. After a few moments of trying to gain stability William finally managed to level out and start looking a little more dignified, occasionally flapping his wings a couple of times to make sure he continued to gain altitude.

He looked around for Spyro how was circling not far away. He redirected himself and when he was in shouting distance Spyro turned away to lead him towards the Temple.

After a moment William noticed a sobbing noise and looked back to see Jacks panicked face. "Please, I don't want to die on the incompetent flying lizard…" He moaned quietly.

Will narrowed his eyes at the, possibly unintentional, insult. He may be inexperienced but incompetent? He decided to prove the moronic 'rabbit' wrong. Will pulled into a steep dive, levelling and using his momentum to regain some height before begging an erratic but controlled spin. From there he rapidly ascended, the poor hare's claws digging into William's shoulders. He then began to corkscrew down to Spyro's level before straightening out and gliding over to him.

Spyro was looking rather stunned at the aerial acrobatics display. "What was that for?"

Will looked at him rather blankly. "I'm sorry, what was what for?" He said in mock ignorance.

"That, that flying! It was… rather intensive, and… impressive." He admitted.

Will smiled contently at the statement. "Why thank you. As for your question Jack had some misconceptions regarding my aptitude at flying. I simply wished to correct his misinterpretations regarding my ability."

Spyro looked back to the jittery hare clinging to James's back and gave a lopsided smile. "Right…" Something told Spyro this white dragon was going to be a handful to deal with. He appeared to have a vocabulary as wide as Volteer's but fortunately spoke at a pace where it could actually be understood. He clearly had a streak of mischief in him and his sense of humour while subtle was sharp. His accent also made him stand out, clear and crisp yet a little singsongy at the same time. "So, James, where are you from?" Spyro asked, trying to spark up conversation.

His expiration visibly shifted to one of discomfort. "That's… a long story. It's complicated and… I just don't want to get into it right now. How about you though? I thought I heard you say that glowy friend of yours was your brother. Now I'm no biologist but I'm pretty sure reptiles and insects are… incompatible."

The rapid shift of focus unnerved Spyro a little but he decided to play along. "Well I grew up with him; our parents were Dragonflies like him. I even thought I was a Dragonfly to until recently."

"How odd, and you suspected nothing despite the obvious physical differences?" William asked quizzically.

Spyro shrugged. "Not really. The first time I suspected something was when I almost toasted Sparx using my fire breath for the first time."

"That must be an interesting story, have too much to eat one night or where the circumstances more, dire?" Will joked.

It enticed a smile from Spyro. "He was been used as a lantern by an ape, kept throwing dynamite at me."

Sparx finally butted into the conversation. "Hay! That was no laughing matter! First the frogweed, then the monkey that wouldn't stop shaking me then my own brother almost roasts me alive trying to 'save' me." He proclaimed angrily.

Will smirked. "I take it he's always like this?"

"When he's not gloating or insulting you." Spyro affirmed.

William gave him a knowing smile. "I know the feeling; I have a sister and trust me when I say girls are worse."

"Really? Where is she?" Spyro asked.

James became uncomfortable again with the subject shifting to him once more. "She's… at home, and right now home, for me is a long, long way from here."

He ended on a bitter note that deterred Spyro from asking more. The rest of their trip was spent in slightly awkward silence.

Eventually they came to the temple. William was at first only mildly impressed by the structure. Then he took note of the location; how they built such a structure in the middle of a swamp of all places raised a number of questions about how on earth it was built.

Spyro began to come in for a landing; he was still uncomfortable with them and only just avoiding falling head over heels but at the cost of receiving a mouth full of dirt. James's landing appeared to be better coordinated if still a little ruff.

Ignitus was of course there to meet him as was Volteer who was looking as excited as ever. When William landed Jack wasted no time jumping off and putting some distance between himself and the, in his opinion, insane white dragon. Ignitus began looking over the younger dragon and William returned the sentiment, carefully taking in his appearance.

William strode forward confidently towards the two. "I assume you are Ignitus? One of the guardians, correct?" He questioned the red one in an attempt to assert himself. He refused to come off as timid.

"Yes that is correct young one. If I may ask, what is your name?" Ignitus replied warmly. Examining the young one in front of him who, as in his visions appeared a little older than Spyro.

"I go by the name James. I also find myself inclined to ask you what your intentions are in bringing me here." William replied, starting to sound a little edgy.

"Primarily your protection. These are dark times, those who were once a violent minority and a mere annoyance now roam the lands freely, hunting dragons and spreading chaos." He explained grimly.

William nodded. "So I've been told… and experienced."

This unsettled Ignitus. "You have been attacked? When? Where?"

Spyro stepped forward to explain. "When I found them in Warfang they were being attacked by a large group of apes. He and his friend were backed into a corner so I helped them fight the apes off."

Volteer was looking concerned. "It is most disturbing indeed that the apes are daring to venture into the city despite its deserted and decrepit state. Most unsettling indeed, but it is important that we are informed of their movements and that they are beginning to grow bolder in the face of our fall." He blurted out.

William nodded, having grown a little more comfortable in their presents. "Yes, a sentiment I can understand. In times of war information is paramount."

This took Ignitus by surprise. "You are versed in the ways of war? One so young?"

William shrugged. "A little more than most children where I come from; I do my research, of course it also helps that my father is a soldier… well, was really, he's moved on now."

Ignitus nodded in understanding. "That is most interesting. May I ask where you are from? Is there a chance the dragons where you come from could assist us?"

Once again William was made uncomfortable. "I come from a long way away, a _very_ long way away. Even if I knew how to get back there quickly I doubt the people there would be fast to help you. To be frank no one there has heard of you and neither have I before today, I need more information before I act and so would they but they have their own problems as well." In truth there was a higher chance of interference then he let on but most lightly under the incentive of gaining access to the resources of this world. The fact that humans were in fact a form of ape, taxonomically speaking, and the fact he was actually one would put him in hot water.

Volteer moved closer to ignites to have a little more privacy. "This boy speaks with wisdom beyond his apparent age. He is an odd one indeed."

"Yes, but he does not seem to wish to part with information easily. It seems he is slow to trust." Ignitus replied, just loud enough that the others would hear; he did not want to breed unneeded suspicion. He then looked back to James. He was clearly not as willing to trust as Spyro and seemed more mature in attitude so he decided to treat him as such. "You are welcome to take a room in the temple to sleep in and join us in our meals. You are no prisoner so you may leave whenever you like but I would recommend against it, at least for the moment. If you require knowledge or training it is our duty as Guardians to offer our knowledge and experience to the young so feel free to come us for help."

Will nodded his head in appreciation. "I thank you for your hospitality but what of my friend?"

Volteer cocked his head in surprise. "Friend? What friend is this?"

Slowly Jack stepped forward from behind William. "Er… hi. The name's Jack." He said sheepishly to the two ginormous dragons. "And, I'm a hare, not a rabbit. If one more person calls me a rabbit today…" He blurted out. "Rabbits don't even talk or walk on two legs for cryin out loud." He murmured quietly afterwards.

Ignitus looked over the hare carefully. He had a feeling this was a little bit of a shifty individual though was clearly no serious threat. "It is not our way to turn away those in need, but as he is not a dragon he will have limited access to the temple."

"Uh, thanks! I guess." The restriction seemed to annoy Jack a little but not considerably so.

"Spyro? Would you kindly show our guests to a pair of rooms and show them around the temple?" Ignitus asked.

Spyro nodded eagerly. "Sure thing! Come on, follow me!"

William began to stride after the excited young dragon, Jack also in tow. It did not take the long to reach the dormitories.

"So, here we are. You can take any room you like really… except that one! That one's mine." He explained and added hastily pointing to the only one which doors' were ajar.

Will took a few moments to look through each of the rooms. They were mostly the same with a balcony on the opposite wall from the door, a raised platform with a dish in it filled with cautions and a curtain around it that Will assumed was a bed and a dragon sized book case, fire place and desk to the right of the room. It seemed rather luxurious if repetitive.

Spyro watched and began to look a little nervous as James was taking so long to choose a room. "There… is another wing on the other side of the temple if you don't like these… though I think there meant to be for girls. There's also some stuff in storage you could add, I'm sure the Guardians won't mind." He offered.

William settled on a room three doors down from Spyro that had fed curtains and a range of pillows, sheets and blankets. "No thank you. This'll be fine for now."

Jack peeked into the room Will had chosen. "I'll bunk with you." He began to move into the room but a raised white foreleg ending in a claw stopped him.

"One question." William said sternly. "Do you snore?"

"What? No! What do ya take me for? A pansy rabbit!" Jack burst out, apparently offended by the question. Also, he apparently didn't like rabbits.

William lowered his foreleg and simply shrugged.

Jack proceeded to nick a couple of cushions and a blanket from Will's bed/nest and stuffed them into the bottom of the book case then promptly got into the makeshift bed.

"You know, that ain't such a bad idea. I'll go catch forty winks myself. Seen all this before anyway." Sparx said before flying over to Spyro's room and slipping through a large crack above the door.

"So, how about that tour?" Will asked as he shut the door.

"Sure, follow me." He said happily, eagerly trotting off down the hall.

The way William had taught himself to move his new set of feet resulted in considerably less than Spyro's plodding which, in a strange way, amused him. However he noticed that even though his legs were a little longer and he was taking larger strides the way he insisted on moving his feet, heel to tow, actually resulted in him falling behind so he had to do a short sprint every minute or so to keep up. This in turn amused Spyro similarly. After all, why go to so much hassle just so he would not make so much noise?

Despite their shenanigans they soon arrived in the main room where the giant statue stood. "So, this is the training room, you need to come through her to get to most parts of the temple so you'll be seeing it a lot."

Will frowned. "Training room? Are you sure? There's not really enough room in here for that."

"Oh! That's because the stature recedes into the floor." He explained cheerfully.

William's eyes went wide. "You're kidding me. That has to be one hell of a pulley and counter wait system! I need to see down there some time…"

The comment surprised Spyro, he had never really wondered how it worked he was just amazed that it could. Looking back he was surprised he hadn't thought the same thing sooner but still, he had only been here a few days and had other things on his mind. "Well chances are you'll see it soon enough. The Guardians will want to see what you can do… that is, if you're interested in training. You were doing pretty well back there so you may just want to practise."

"You flatter me." William said flatly. "It was my first time in a real fight… the first time I… I…" He stiffened up in discomfort, remembering the empty looks in the eyes of the apes he killed. Yes they made it so it was either them or him but it was still killing.

Spyro grew worried at the sight of the dragon looking into empty space. "Are… are you okay?" He asked tentatively.

Will snapped out of it. "I'm sorry; it's just the first time I've killed… I've been in fights before, one tow to tow with a gang of bullies and who hasn't stepped on the occasional bug? But that, that was something else." He was standing still, properly assimilating the memories for the first time.

Spyro nodded solemnly. "On my first night in the temple it kept me up too. Just, remember, it's not your fault. They came after you." He tried to affirm.

"Came at me? Yes. Not my fault? I suppose that's up for debate, after all, I was stupid enough to step out in front of them while they were threatening someone and crack a witty one liner that was bound to get me in trouble." He said with a sense of grim amusement. "Either way I'm smart enough to understand it isn't something I'm going to get over in one night."

"It's still not your fault. They could have chosen to back off and it sounds like they would have killed that person if you hadn't interrupted." He argued sombrely. "I'm guessing that person was Jack, right?"

They simply sat there awkwardly before Will broke the silence. "Yeah, it was. So… what else is there to this place?"

Spyro was more than a little relieved for the change of topic. "Yeah, of course there is! Come on then." He led him into the next room where a basin of water sat built into the floor. "This is the pool of visions. I'm not completely sure what it does but it allows Ignitus to see… important things."

"Yes, you said Igntus used it to find me? I can't say I enjoy invasion of my privacy much." William commented sharply.

The comment made Spyro aware that James was still suspicious of them. "Well it's not like he can see people at will. It just shows bits and pieces."

Will approached the basin and used a wing to waft air towards him. The action puzzled Spyro but what Will was actually trying to accomplish was detect any strange smells in the air that indicated the presence of a hallucinogenic. Of course he had no idea what a hallucinogenic smelt like or how fast it acted so in retrospect the action was rather foolish.

He shrugged the idea of the impossibility of it being magic off, remembering not more than an hour ago he had shot a bolt of lightning from his mouth. _'That's a point; I thought dragons were only supposed to breath fire.'_ He thought before once again shrugging the thought off and moving on. "Okay, where next?"

"Well there's the atrium, that's this way…"

Spyro spent much of the few hours showing James around the parts of the temple he knew. James was sceptical at most things he found around the temple, especially the spirit gems though Spyro managed to prove he was speaking the truth by telling him to hold a few of the red ones to heal James's minor wounds.

He became extremely disgruntled at the sight of the 'latrine' and began muttering about grossly primitive pluming. Considering their plumbing system was simply a stream running through part of the temple divided into three parts, drinking, bathing and personal relief in that order, Spyro could not help but admit it was simple but effective even if James didn't think much of it.

There was a large amount of excitement when they found the library which Spyro had not actually seen yet. However that excitement was quickly dashed when he discovered the text was written in a different alphabet to the one he was used to.

"So James, you like reading then?" Spyro asked as William browsed the books almost longingly.

The question held Will in place for a moment before he answered. "Not so much reading but the knowledge gained from doing so. Knowledge is power; with it you can better understand the world around you and you yourself. If you understand yourself and the obstacles you face, be it thinking enemies or your environment, you can overcome them all the easier."

Spyro gave a quizzical smile. "How old are you?"

Will paused again, this time out of tame suspicion. "Fourteen. Why do you ask?"

Spyro shrugged. "With the things you say I half expected you to say you were forty, not fourteen."

William chuckled at the small joke. "Yes, I do sound rather cryptic don't I? For the reason I refer you back to my previous statement. Through information passed down, by whatever means, I can better understand situations that have occurred before, the thoughts, feelings and emotions of those who triumphed or failed and from this information better understand my own obstacles and make better my own attempts. I can learn without having to experience failure; a smart man learns from his mistakes and a wise man learns from other peoples'. Following through?"

Spyro nodded slowly. "Yeah, more or less… but you still have to experience some things for yourself. You can't learn everything from books."

Will shrugged. "Perhaps. Books are a flawed method of communication so until we find a better way we'll just have to make do. So, where to next?"

"Uh… there's the gardens but there pretty much overrun in more ways than one. So I think that's it." A peaked out a nearby window and saw dusk was upon them. "It's getting dark to."

William followed his gaze to the window and saw that the sun was indeed near setting. "Yes, we should probably retire for the night." Then a deep growl interrupted them. However this growl came from no monster or approaching enemy… but rather William's stomach. He shifted nervously. "On second though I haven't eaten since yesterday morning."

"Okay, the kitchens are this way. I could use something to eat myself." And so they began making their way to the kitchens.

As they travelled Spyro began to review his thoughts on the white dragon next to him. He had a confident air about him, very sure of himself almost to the point of being arrogant. He also spoke like an adult; speaking with well thought out sentences, usually pausing before he spoke and often using irritatingly foreign words that he had only heard out of Volteer until now. Then there was his history; every time he had tried to bring it up he grew uncomfortable and brushed the subject aside, evading it completely. _'Obviously he's hiding something but what? And is it dangerous? Or perhaps there's some memory haunting him? _

'_Could he be aligned with Cynder and her forces? But then surely he would have thought of a good alibi to cover himself. _

'_Was he from some distant refuge of dragons that didn't want to be found? But then why was he here? _

'_Could he have some sort of traumatic past that he would prefer hidden? But he certainly seemed fine being as confident as he was.' _

However Spyro's train of thought was soon lost when they reached the kitchens.

"So, what would you like? Bore? Chicken, pheasant?" He asked as he opened the cold room.

William thought for a moment. "Do you have any venison?"

"Huh?" Spyro tilted his head in confusion.

Will rolled his eyes. "Deer." He clarified.

"Oh yeah! We have plenty of that." He soon emerged with a pair of large chunks of meet, the venison for James and some boar for himself.

William felt an uneasy feeling wash over him as the meat slapped to the floor in front of him. He knew for a fact that a human's apparent inability to eat raw meat was slightly exaggerated; as long as it was fresh it was largely alright but to eat possibly days old meat off the floor? He turned to see Spyro holding his slab of meet and tearing away at it with his maw. It reminded Will that he wasn't exactly a human right now.

Unfortunately the hesitation was spotted by Spyro. "Don't tell me you've changed your mind?" He joked.

Will shook his head. "No, it's just… I don't often eat meat raw. Or off the floor." He felt a little snobbish saying it out loud the way he did but settled down to eat the meat anyway.

Carefully he tore away a strip of the venison. Almost agonisingly slowly he slipped it into his mouth. It was strange, cold, soft and slightly slimy but at the same time it tasted quite good. He would have preferred it warm but decided food was food and let the juicy raw meat slide down his gullet.

Spyro watched out of the corner of his eye as James continued to tear off small strips of meat with his claws. He did it so carefully it seemed as if he were doing something far more delicate then eating. It seemed rather un-dragon like but he reminded himself that James was from a long distance away so where ever he came from they probably had radically different customs. That and to be honest he had only met three dragons in total, four if he counted seeing Cynder once.

Soon they finished and began to make their way back to their dorms. As they walked William asked a number of questions on the topic of general information regarding the temple and surrounding lands. There were also a number of personal questions though William was careful not to be too intrusive.

They stopped by his door. "Well, it has been a pleasure talking with you Spyro. I look forward to making more conversation."

Spyro smiled politely. "Yeah, it's been good. See you in the morning."

William gave a friendly nod. "Indeed. Sleep well." He turned and continued on to his own room.

Spyro stared at him for a few moments before continuing into his room where Sparx was soundly sleeping. In the middle of his nest. Carefully Spyro picked up the cushion he was sleeping on and swapped it for one of the ones nearer the edge. He allowed himself a smug smile at getting one over on his brother before collapsing in the middle of his nest of cushions.

As soon as he did there was a knock on the door and he rolled his eyes at the typical situation. Reluctantly he got up and walked back over to the door. Opening it he was surprised to see a large red dragon who was obviously better at moving quietly then his size indicated.

"Ignitus." He greeted, a little surprise seeping into his expressions.

"Spyro. May I come in?" He asked curtly.

Spyro nodded. "Yeah, sure. Come in." He made way for the much larger dragon.

When they were both inside and settled Ignitus began to speak. "So, what can you tell me about our guest? Do you know where he is from yet?"

Spyro shook his head. "I'm afraid not. He's avoiding talking about it but I just can't figure out why."

Ignitus nodded sternly. "We all have secrets Spyro. You would have to live a pitifully short or dull life not to accumulate a few important ones. What else can you tell me about him though?"

Spyro thought for a moment. "Well, James was very interested in the library but he said he couldn't read the books, it's a different language then what he's used to. He's also quite surprised at a lot of things like the spirit gems; he didn't think something like that was possible. I had to show him to get him to believe they were more than just crystals. He also knew nothing about the war or even that much about dragons." He said voicing his surprise.

Ignitus nodded in affirmation of assimilating the knowledge. "Curious. He must have come from somewhere isolated from the rest of the dragon race not to know of such things. You say he is eager to learn?"

"Yes… but I think he was more interested in learning from the books. He's not fast to trust and I think that includes Elders." He admitted hesitantly.

He pondered the idea. "Strange… but understandable, some Elders have abused their positions before. Is that all?"

Spyro thought for a moment and then nodded. "Yes Ignitus, that's all."

"Good, good. Now get some rest young Spyro, I have a feeling you will be needed in the morning." With that he turned and left the purple dragon to get some rest.

In his new room William settled into his new bed, nest or whatever it was supposed to be called. Either way it was more comfortable than what he had used the previous night. A warm comfortable bed was in his view one of the necessities of civilised life. As he began to rest he began to review the day's events as he did the previous evening.

So far he had not yet accumulated enough information on Ignitus or Volteer to accurately judge their character aside from the latter being a thesaurus devouring motor mouth.

Spyro on the other hand, he had plenty of interactions with him on the tour. Polite, mild mannered, friendly, trusting all while obviously a capable fighter. The only thing that unsettled Will was he seemed… simple, naïve in a way. After all, Spyro was obviously just a kid… but so was he. Spyro was right, there are some things you can't teach and true wisdom was one of them. All of his was borrowed be it the direct quotes or rewording of great minds he was still just borrowing it. William had no idea how he would survive his time here and what his disappearance would put his family through. Silently he began to sob and wine quietly, in a manner that was unfamiliar to him, out of a building despair. He could handle being alone, he had been most of his life but his family? Not knowing where he was or how they could get to him? Contact him? He was cut off.

He turned his attention to the invisible amulet hanging around his neck in a feeble attempt to distract himself. The markings around it bore no resemblance to the alphabet he had seen in the library. He briefly considered removing it but a glimpse of Jack sleeping in the book case deterred him. While many from his world would have considered his current form that of a monster ironically the people here would probably see his original form as that of a monster due to his resemblance to an ape. For now he would have to bend the truth.

Slowly he curled up and eventually fell asleep.

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><p>Well, that's the second chapter all wrapped up. I hoped you enjoyed reading it as much as I did righting it. So, tell me what you think, I'm eager to know how I'm doing.<p>

* * *

><p>This story has been edited on the 2004/2012 just so you know. All changes are minor in nature so no worries if you've read this before.


	3. Chandeliers Are Fun

Ignitus had woken Spyro early the next day as the previous night he had located the Ice Guardian Cyril the previous evening in the pool of visions. He was a little reluctant to go due to James still having only recently arrived but Ignitus assured him that he would be well looked after. Now Ignitus was moving to make good on that promise as he approached the room James had chosen.

When he arrived he knocked gently on the door. There was no answer so he knocked again more firmly. Still no answer so this time he pounded the door so it could have been heard across the entire dormitory.

The continued lack of an answer compelled him to investigate so he opened the door. The room was empty of any occupants. This caused Ignitus a brief burst of concern but he quickly dismissed it and continued back to the centre of the temple to search for the young dragon.

As he walked he pondered the whereabouts of the white dragon. It was possible he was in the library as he had shown an interest there or could have even left the temple altogether for some unknown reason. Then something happened that he did not expect. He received assistance from an organ in the form of the light ach of hunger. The perplexingly simple insight from his stomach made him think of exactly what time of day it was; morning and in the morning the most enticing thing to get one out of bed was a decent breakfast.

He immediately set a course for the kitchens.

"James? Are you there?" He called out when he finally reached the galley.

"Huh? No, he ain't here." A rough voice said dismissively.

Ignitus looked to see the hare; Jack sitting in the corner surrounded by a number of broken cooking utensils, there was also a strange if not unpleasant smell in the air. He narrowed his eyes. "Then what are you doing here?"

Jack snorted. "This place is a dump. I'm good at fixing stuff and since James is so good at cooking stuff I decided to invest in that. In case you can't put two and two together I'm fixing this place up." He grumbled.

Ignitus was a little surprised at this. "And the smell?"

Jack shrugged. "James is good at cooking. He made a couple of omelettes for us this morning."

This surprised Ignitus further. Omelettes were made of eggs after all and dragons came from eggs so they didn't really eat them. Of course they tolerated others eating them but… it just seemed strange that a dragon would, especially as he knew there was plenty of meat in the pantry. Thinking about it, they didn't even have any eggs in their stores of food so where exactly had James got them? He put the thought aside for now; he had more important things on his mind. "Well do you know where James is now?"

Jack once again gave an uncaring shrug as he continued to try and bend a spatula back into shape. "Said somethin about going flying, joy flying or something like that, I don't really know… you own the place after all, shouldn't you know?"

He nodded in acceptance of the information. "Very well, thank you for telling me."

Jack's response was another uncaring shrug. Ignitus simply turned and left, hares weren't exactly known to be polite so he put up with the creatures rudeness. At least he was doing them a favour in fixing things.

He continued onwards to the circular platform at the front of the temple. He arrived just in time to see a white creature with blue wings streak into a cloud… and soon drop out of it in an uncontrollable fall. Ignitus reacted immediately, taking flight to intercept the falling dragon but he soon realised he would not reach James before he hit the ground. A fealing of dread passed through him as all he could do was watch and futilely dive towards him.

Ignitus could only watch fearfully as the young dragon plummeted to his death… but then he began to reorient, to level out into a vertical dive and then spread his wings moments from hitting the ground below. There was a brief cry of excitement as he did so.

Ignitus began to move towards James who was now gently regaining altitude. With a stern expression wondering exactly what the boy was doing tempting fate like that.

William quickly noticed the much larger red dragon and adjusted his speed accordingly. His movements were still a little jerky but he was quickly getting the hang of flying. Having a rudimentary understanding aerodynamics also helped.

"Good morning… Ignitus, wasn't it?" He asked lackadaisically, yet his demeanour was not devoid of genuine politeness.

"Yes, good morning to you to young one, but I cannot help but wander what you are doing out here?" His voice was heavy and his expression stern but seemed to have no effect on the young dragon who continued to lazily flap his wings and smile contently.

"Practicing flying of course." He said simply.

"Practicing by performing such dangerous and irresponsible stunts?" He questioned as one would a disobedient child.

William raised an eye ridge at the older dragon, irritated by the tone. "How else am I supposed to learn aerial manoeuvres? I have heard the history of this land from two different people now, this is a dangerous place and it stands to reason that I will find myself falling out of the sky at one point or another. Is it not best I know what to do when that time comes?" He challenged the older dragon.

Ignitus gave him a discontent huff at the boy's use of logic for verbal fencing as it were. "You have a fast thinking tongue and you are right, it is best to be prepared for such eventualities. However I insist that someone at the very least observe your practice if not properly instruct you less you wish to find yourself stranded with a broken wing or worse without help."

"And who's to say I haven't received instruction on flying before?" He accused and then smiled. "But if you insist; watch and learn. You may even spot something you already know." He teased the older dragon knowing full well Ignitus could surpass him in skill. However it was well worth it to see the expression of brief astonishment turn to disbelief and chiding on his face.

He began accelerating into a shallow dive before sharply re-angling his wings so he moved sharply upwards a short distance and hung there in the air vertically for a moment before allowing himself to fall backwards and flip over backwards so he was once again facing forward and began to flap furiously to regain his speed.

It did not take long for Ignitus to figure out how the move would be useful when being pursued by an attacking enemy. James continued to practice sharp turns and swerves, dodging imaginary foes and attacks. He seemed to have a liking for being in free fall as he often performed sudden drops and steep, near vertical, dives. He appeared to be a natural flyer though clearly inexperienced as he more than occasionally wavered in movements and got surprised by changes in wind patterns or thermal currents. His stunts also revealed he was clearly, to some degree, a thrill seeker.

Eventually he appeared to tire and began to descend back to the temple balcony. Ignitus followed him and landed with a few heavy beats of his wings. James was sitting there on his hunches examining one of his claws and looking rather pleased with himself and board at the same time.

"Impressive, you are certainly imaginative with your movements and you have the makings of an elite flyer in you, but you still have a lot to learn. Your knowledge on wind patterns and spotting thermals is clearly lacking." Ignitus explained.

A brief scowl crossed the boy's face before he composed himself. "Well, I'll have to fix that won't I? Speaking of such is there someone here who could help me decipher your alphabet? We shear a language but the markings we use where I come from are different to yours… dramatically so I might add." He stated stiffly, not yet completely comfortable with the older red dragon.

Ignitus thought about it for a moment. "Volteer would probably be better suited to the task then I… but before you wonder off to find him I was hoping we could talk."

Will cocked his head. "What about?"

"You. While you have not been here long it is only natural we still know little about you. However these are uncertain times and we must side with caution, I hope you understand when I say we need to know who those close to us are." He explained ominously.

Will nodded and began listing things out in a chirpy tone. "All too understandable. My favourite colours are green, yellow and blue in that order. My favourite foods are pizza, curry and spaghetti bolognaise though I can't stand yogurt, bananas or mushrooms… though I assure you the nearby forest causes me little distress. I enjoy… abstract sports, games of strategy, riddles, sending bullies thrice my size to hospital even if I end up joining them… Oh, chocolate, can't forget chocolate. I enjoy rock music though I'm partial to anything that sounds good. I find art largely boring as it has little perpose in my eyes, though occasionally I find something pleasing to look at. I fined the ideas of slavery, genocide, rape, dictatorships and powerful religious organisations abhorrent although I should mention that doesn't mean religion altogether, just as long as you keep it between yourself and those who actually want to hear it. Personally I say 'no gods or kings', my destiny is my own, although some events become inevitably unavoidable at some time before their happening. Also; don't take it personally but I tend not to trust authority figures even if they've gained my respect; it's an instinct and habit of sorts. Oh, and my first word was duck, my mother and farther never told me but I assume there was a volley of toys thrown every which way soon after."

Ignitus saw clearly that the boy was dodging the question. It was also obvious that he would get on with Volteer, the pair of them having a comparable ability to crank out unscrupulous amounts of what most perceived to be verbal garbage.

He sighed in mild frustration. "That is not exactly what I meant young one. I need to know where you come from… where your loyalties lie."

William's expression quickly turned to one of distaste. "I have also recently discovered I dislike being referred to as 'young one'. I have a name, please use it. As for my loyalties I will answer your question with another question; is that truly a fair thing to ask of not just a child but someone who still does not have the full picture of what is going on? Regarding my origins, that is not a subject I feel comfortable discussing, especially with someone I have only just met." He said sourly. "Now, if you will excuse me I have to see a dragon about some runes." He then turned and scampered off in search of Volteer.

For the first time in a while Ignitus truly did not know what to think. Yes the child was rude and insolent but he also had a point. How could he be expected to choose a side in a war he knew next to nothing about? He was intelligent and stubborn, a volatile combination for a child but not impossible to deal with. Realising he would have to be patient and wait to gain the young dragons trust he reserved his questions in the faith that they would be answered eventually. Still, he was a Guardian and he was sure that made him an 'authority figure' in James's book and by deduction it made the boy much more difficult to deal with as James had practically admitted himself. Still, he was sure the young dragon would come around to his point of view eventually; thinking on all that Cynder and her armies had done it was hard to imagine any reasonable person not doing so. He just hopped the boy turned out to be a reasonable person.

William felt a little bad about how he had snapped out at Ignitus… well, apart from the 'young one' bit. The only reason he did it was because he wanted to make him stop asking questions about his origins. He didn't take a hint when he tried to brush it aside with humour so he got more aggressive. Maybe it wasn't the best way to do so; the highly aggressive defence could just as easily arouse suspicion as it did deter questions from the more timed. It most certainly wasn't the best way to make friends with his host even if he had truly hit a sensitive spot.

His not too distant history…

His family…

'_Still, no taking it back now.'_ He thought to himself.

He continued onwards. By the sounds of the things William had been and his brief encounter with the yellow dragon Volteer he was an intellectual, so logically he decided the first place to look for him would be the library. If he was lucky and Volteer was there it would save him from walking back and forth across the temple.

Luck, as it seemed, was on his side as Volteer was where he predicted; looking through books on numerous topics and murmuring to himself. Slowly William approached. "Um, excuse me?"

Volteer perked up. "Hum what? What? Oh! Young James; it's most delightful, delectable and jubilant to see you. Ignitus believed you would be coming to see me in my uh, domain of expertise." He said happily.

If William still had hairs, they would be standing on end right now. He hadn't told Ignitus he was interested in books, the fact he wanted to learn the language made it apparent he wanted to read something but he had only told the large red dragon a few minutes ago. The only conclusion was that ether Ignitus was spying on him the previous day or Spyro had told him. Ignitus's size made the former near impossible. He tried to suppress a pang of hurt at the young dragon's action; after all he seemed to be strongly affiliated with this group and Ignitus seemed to be some sort of mentor or farther figure to Spyro, but try as he may William could not help but feel a little betrayed. He didn't like people talking about him behind his back and spilling his desires and aspirations to the world, something he had been laughed at for too many times. It was a thing that had happened far too often when he was younger leading to him becoming a little paranoid. He decided to somehow slip his feelings on the mater subtly to Spyro later; he hated having a potential friend also be someone else's method for keeping tabs on him. However for some reason he felt he could still trust the dragon, he seemed familiar in a way… and those eyes, almost romantically deep, understanding and companionate. Whoever got his attention in the end would be a very lucky girl indeed.

'_Well, dragoness.' _He corrected himself. _'Which would still be a girl… wouldn't it?' _

It suddenly dawned on him that he could be stuck here a very long time and the longer he stayed here the larger the chance of him 'going native' as the saying went.

"Um, James? You seem a little distracted and diverted. Something on your mind hum?" Volteer questioned.

William stiffened up a little from being pulled out of the proverbial clouds before relaxing again. "My apologies, a distracting thought caught me."

"Quite understandable, quite understandable. So, what brings you to my little, uh, domain?" Volteer inquired humorously.

"Well I'm afraid I am unable to read your script. It is quite different to what I am used to, despite us clearly using the same language, at least on some base level, we use dramatically different alphabets and perhaps even grammatical rules. I may be able to decipher it on my own with a little information but that would take a considerable amount of time." William explained.

Volteer cocked his head at the information. "You are versed in the art of decryption?" He asked, a little astonished.

"Well, only a few basic techniques I picked up… nothing serious but where I come from interception and decoding messages is our primary source of information gathering regarding… opponents, of all varieties." He admitted as modestly as possible. And it was true, in modern times many terrorist plots or attempts by other nations to screw the UK over had been foiled by intercepted messages allowing them to halt or even back fire such plans. They were also good with feeding out misinformation though that was another story.

Volteer seemed intrigued by the idea. "How intriguing, yes that would be a most valid and plausible tactic, much more subtle then spying or even eavesdropping though there must be some difficulty in acquiring said messages… but I divulge. Let us see if we cannot facilitate a transition between our alphabet and yours…" He proceeded to retrieve several sheets of parchment, a pair of quills and ink pots, placing them on a table the right height to be comfortable for Volteer lying down in front of it. It was also thicker, no doubt testament to a grown dragon's strength. William being considerably less then fully grown had to sit on his hunches. He was mildly intrigued by the, to him, antiquated righting instruments.

And so they began to match up the characters to each other through their sounds. Dragon script or Draconian, as Volteer named it, being composed of numerous scratch like marks had more characters then the English alphabet; covering all the ch and sh type sounds though used the same symbol for Y and I strangely enough. Soon enough they had it all nailed down and all that was left was for William to memorise it.

While William's pride caused him no end of grief and discomfort over the action Volteer stood by his side tentatively as he read through a number of simple scripts reading them aloud so Volteer could correct mistakes and point out grammatical rules that differed with that of English of which William made notes of.

It was just passed mid-day when William decided he was comfortable with reading the language, if not writing with it just yet. He could only read it half as fast as he could English but he knew in time he would speed up, the input of knowledge was more than enough to stave off the annoyance for him.

When he was done he gathered his notes and they packed away the materials. "Thank you for the assistance, I appreciate it. A lot." William said sincerely.

Volteer smiled warmly. "Think nothing of it my boy! It's part of my duty to pass on what I know to the next generation."

"Still, I must thank you anyway. You've given me a chance to help myself learn and progress, a chance to self-determinate. Thank you." He truly did appreciate the help.

Volteer beamed at the heart felt appreciation. "Why, it has been a while since…" He murmured quietly. "Well then, I'm glad you think so highly of me, literature was always Cyrils strong spot after all."

"Just… one more thing though. I was wondering if I could take a few books back to my room to read." He asked politely.

Volteer nodded. "I don't see why not, as long as you put them back when you're done. Was there anything specific you were looking for?"

Will shrugged. "Mainly background information. Local history, local dragons… flying. Useful things to know really."

"Ah, well then I have a few recommendations for you…"

Volteer began to walk around the room, occasionally picking up a book. Will used this opportunity to pick up a couple that might look suspicious if Volteer spotted the titles of. The yellow dragon came back with four books, Will had picked up two of his own; 'Storm Riding: Advanced Flying Techniques for Dragons' and 'A Guide to Dragon Health & Relations'. The six books plus his notes would be difficult to carry but not impossible as Volteer had also taken the time to retrieve a sling he could carry the books with. The only problem was it had to be carried in the mouth, a prospect more than a little distasteful to Will.

Before he left Volteer gave him a run down on the books. "First we have 'Prominent events and history of the Dragon Realms'. Not very in depth but it should give you a basic understanding of current events. Then there's 'Tall Plains to Avalar and other landmarks'. It should be enough to give you an idea on where you are and how to get where you want… probably shouldn't tell Ignitus I gave you that one, I think he wants to keep you here; his intentions are good and I recommend you do stay but… just in case."

This caught William off guard. _'Perhaps my simple act of thanks had more of an impact than I thought.'_

"Here we have 'Flying and Flight for Dragons'. It has plenty of information on performing areal manoeuvers, identifying wind patterns and even a bit on aerial combat!" He said excitedly, though William was trying to resist rolling his eyes at the childish conveyance of the incentive. "Finally we have; 'Elements: a Basic Comprehension'. It doesn't have too much information on your own element but it contains the basics of every elemental ability we know of, yours included."

This perplexed William. "I'm sorry but… my element?"

"Of course my dear boy. Your element." Volteer mused. Then he caught wind of James's unsteady expiration. "You, don't know about you're element, do you?"

"Um… no." Carefully considering the look of astonishment he quickly concocted a half-truth to explain. "We don't rely on those types of abilities really… we more concentrate on engineering, craftsmanship, technical skills."

Volteer didn't look entirely convince but it would seem his curiosity got the better of him. "Really? How so? In what way? Do you know why?"

William found he was digging himself into a deeper pit and had to think fast to get out. "It's… a long story. Another time perhaps? Anyway, you said you knew what my element was?"

The inquisitive yellow dragon looked a little disappointed but continued none the less. "Well, the colouration of a dragon's scales usually indicates his natural element, though admittedly discrepancies aren't completely uncommon. For example; my primary colouration is yellow and of the element electricity. Ignitus is red and fire dragon. Since your primary colouration is white I am assuming you are of the element light, a very rear breed indeed."

That sparked William's interest more than anything else. "Light? That's… that's a rather flexible ability. I could do a lot with that…" The possibilities he could think of were rather broad depending on how deep this ability could tap into and that was without understanding light on the quantum scale.

Volteer nodded excitedly. "Yes, white dragons were known to do many strange and unusual things. Some could turn themselves invisible, others could create strange illusions and others could project it in concentrated beams that could burn as intensely as any fire. However you are unusual; most white dragons were exactly that, white. They had no other secondary colours and their eyes were of a reddish shade." He explained with some confusion.

The description sounded familiar to Will. "Albino…" He murmured as it clicked into place.

"I beg your pardon?"

"Oh, albino. Well it's… it's a sort of birth defect I suppose. Creatures born 'albino' lack any pigmentation in their fur or skin making it ghostly white. The same goes for their eyes, the iris mussel has no pigmentation and so they have no colour, just the natural pinkie red of mussels." He explained as best he could.

"Ah yes! I've heard of such cases before, but you certainly don't appear to conform to it." He observed.

Will thought about it for a moment and then he remembered what had happened in Warfang. "Volteer, back in Warfang… I, I electrocuted an ape just before it could attack Spyro. With electricity."

This griped Volteer's attention. "Really? Are you sure? How odd. I will have to confer with my colleague Ignitus. This is a little unusual… though you do have some yellow colouration. Perhaps I will be instructing you further in the near future hum?"

That put a crick in Will's mood. Not so much the idea of Volteer teaching him but rather his conference with Ignitus. There was something about the fire dragon's suspicious attitude towards him that annoyed William, he knew he hadn't done anything to earn his trust but then had he really done anything to earn his suspicion either?

"Well… if that's all?"

"Yes, yes. I most enjoyed your company, very much indeed." Volteer exclaimed in his usual cheery manor.

"The pleasure was all mine." Will gave a quick nod of his head in thanks. Then picked up the sling full of books and began to return to his room.

Once he was there he began putting the browed books on the second shelf of the book shelf in his room and put the papers into a draw in the desk. Looking around at the room it still seemed to be rather bare. However before he could think of a way to rectify the problem his ponderings were interrupted by a knock on the door.

He proceeded to answer the door to find the familiar face of Ignitus, presumably here to ask him about what he spoke to Volteer about.

"I assume you're here about me shooting bolts of electricity." Will stated blandly.

Ignitus nodded. "Yes, in fact we would like to see what you can do. That is, if you don't mind giving as a demonstration."

Will thought about it for a moment and decided he didn't really have anything better to do right now. "Very well, lead the way."

This seemed to please Initus. "Good, good. This way."

They trekked through the halls at a pace William wasn't exactly comfortable with; too slow. Eventually they reached the large training hall. Volteer joined them soon after, there was just enough room for the two to observe.

The statue began to descend and William walked up to the edge to try and get a look of the mechanisms below but unfortunately could see little through the thick darkness below. He grunted in annoyance as the three segments covered the top of the hole.

This behaviour baffled the older dragons slightly but Ignitus pressed forward. "We shall start by assessing your combat abilities young James, before moving onto elemental abilities."

A training dummy materialised in the centre of the room. The object's appearance stunned William slightly, being of a scientific mind set the 'magic' here unsettled him greatly. What surprised him further was when the dummy began to circle him, wooden sword guarding his front.

Deciding on his tactic William charged strait forward as if to attack but stopped right in front of the bracing dummy. When he halted the dummy heisted for a moment but Will stayed still until the dummy began to swing at him. Will rolled to the side and lunged at the dummy's leg grabbing it with in his powerful jaws and pulling back hard sending the dummy tumbling onto its back. Will proceeded to jump onto the dummy pinning it and proceeded to rip at the fabric body sending the wool and sawdust stuffing flying. He, somewhat unnecessarily, finished it off by slashing at its wooden neck and yanking the head to one side breaking it away from the body.

Calmly Will stepped off the body of the now wrecked dummy and to his surprise its remains dematerialised in the same manor it appeared. He turned to face the pair of older dragons. He began to examine his claws giving a board appearance. He enjoyed acting the part of the cocky, arrogant but level headed bastard. It annoyed his teachers to no end and amused him highly even if he didn't believe half the things he was saying.

Ignitus nodded in approval. "Good, you do indeed have a good foundation for combat but your technique, while fearsome, is unrefined and awkward."

"Fearsome? That was downright ferocious!" Volteer hissed quietly to Ignitus.

Ignitus ignored him and cleared his throat. "As I said, it still needs some work so I recommend a little more practice. Now, let us see how you deal with multiple opponents." As soon as he spoke three more dummies appeared.

Now William was feeling a little uncomfortable. The dummies slowly moved to surround him but William decided to charge at the right most dummy to catch them off guard. The other two quickly moved to assist but were too late. Like before Will dodged an attack by rolling out of the way and then jumped onto the dummies back and ripped at its head with his claws, aiming for a quick kill. He jumped back and the dummy flailed around for a moment more before falling to the ground.

Unfortunately this put William in a difficult position, the other two dummies now had him with his back against the wall, close enough to each other to support the other if Will attacked.

He couldn't attack without taking a blow so he ran round the edge, narrowly missing a swing from one of the mock swords. Now in more open ground he spun around to face the two dummies once more. Then he noticed something, the barbed spike on the end of his tail. He grinned for a moment, thinking of what he could do with it. He made his choice.

He dashed at the two dummies and they predictably bought their guard up. He ducked between them and unfurled his wings shoving them to the sides. He spun to face one and jabbed backwards with his tail into the dummy behind him creating a gaping hole in the thing's chest. He then pounced the other, jabbing his tail forward under himself and into the chest of the second dummy, finishing it off with a slash of his claws. He heard a creaking noise and turned in time to see the first dummy lunge haphazardly at him with its sword. William again rolled to the side and backed off a little.

To be honest he was more than a little surprised the dummy was still standing, though admittedly it was staggering around due to the wound it had taken. Will waited patiently for it to make one last desperate attack, easily dogging it then jumping onto its now exposed front sending it crashing to the ground. He finished it off with a stamp of his hind leg to its head. Then calmly he approached the guardians, trying his best to conceal his heavy breathing through his nostrils. He refused to look undignified after only two rounds of combat.

"So, what is next? A challenge dear I ask?" William stated simply.

Ignitus furrowed his brow. "Do not be so quick to judge your enemies so. You may just underestimate them one day. Now, again." Three Dummies appeared again.

Despite his condescending attitude William was paying attention and knew that something would be different this time around even if it wasn't completely obvious at first. Of course his uncertainty as to how it had changed only lasted about half a second. All three dummies rushed him at once.

William was quick to dash to the left, out of the way but received a nick from the left dummy. It was nothing more than a distraction but it annoyed Will as it was the first time they had managed to touch him.

He turned ready to face them but they were already charging, not giving him time to think. He had to bolt again to avoid being pummelled by the wooden swords.

Thinking fast he moved so the dummies were lined up and jumped onto the one nearest forcing the other two to manoeuvre around their friend who was at present being mauled by Will. As soon as the dummy was down he moved away and not a moment too soon as a mock sword came down hard where he used to be. Not wasting the moment Will attacked the legs of the dummy sending it toppling but had to retreat before the other remaining one could get a hit in, though not without a large chunk of the first dummy's leg.

He bolted away to put some space between himself and the remaining dummies. When he stopped and turned to face them he couldn't help but smile in satisfaction at the limping dummy. The first of course was still rushing at him. The initial shock of this head on approach had worn off now and they were beginning to get predictable. This time he waited until the dummy was almost on top of him, then, when its sword began to swing down on him he darted between the things legs. He wasn't large enough to fit through the gap but that was half the point; he applied as much force to the task as possible casing the dummy to become unbalanced and fall forward over William, landing behind him. He wasted no time in whipping around and finishing the dummy off by jumping hard down on the things back, crushing the wooden frame inside.

He turned to face the last dummy who was hobbling towards him. He smirked and felt an pang of empathy for a cat playing with its pray. He began to circle the remaining dummy, just a little faster than it could turn to face him. Then he started to dash around it, forcing it to turn back the other way to keep him is sight. Will repeated this twice more but on the fourth time halted and jumped back just as the dummy whipped around keeping himself out of sight. Then, he pounced. The dummy didn't stand a chance and soon lay still on the sandy floor.

William picked himself up once more and walked back to the pair of Guardians. They looked reasonably satisfied with what he had accomplished. "Sneaky that, changing their behaviour." Will commented nonchalantly. "But still, not particularly difficult to deal with. Fun though."

"Hum, impressive, you have a clearer sense of how to adapt to a changing situation, an excellent accomplishment." Volteer complimented.

Ignitus on the other hand looked irritated. _'Perhaps disappointed?'_ Will pondered.

"Yes, very good. Now, again." Ignitus insisted much to Volteer's surprise.

Will turned around just in time to see five dummies appear, this time one of them was much larger and threatening. The two smaller ones to his left and right began to rush him.

As James began to battle the dummies once more Volteer leaned over to talk to Ignitus quietly. "Ignitus, what are you trying to accomplish here? He has already stated he has not had much in the way of combat experience, however unfathomable that is to believe right now, so why are you pushing him?"

"I am waiting for him to use his elemental abilities, so far he is holding back. He has not used flight to gain an advantage nor his elemental abilities. He's showing off." He stated a little distastefully as James finished dispatching the two dummies that rushed him.

William realised the trap that was set for him almost too late. While he was dealing with the first two, the second pair of dummies had circled round so he was now being charged from three directions. Not good.

Calming himself he did the first thing that came to mind, drilled into him by his farther. Attack the largest target, the 'leader'. While these were only dummies and so far appeared unaffected by fear or physiological attacks, even pain, when in real life the death of the biggest, strongest guy on their side would cause at least a little panic.

He waited for the large dummy to start swinging his weapon and then lunged strait for the arm holding the sword, clenching his teeth down hard on the thing's arm. This of course left his back open for attack which the dummy did indeed exploit, hitting him hard with his free hand. However William refused to let go without at least a chunk of the dummies arm despite the rather horrible taste of wool and saw dust entering his mouth. He began to flail his fore claws around, casing as much damage as he could. Eventually he had to let go, catching sight of the other two dummies approaching the fray cautiously. As fast as he could he slipped around back and climbed onto the things back and began to claw at it and stab at it with his tail. The larger dummy however was a lot harder to dispatch then his smaller companions and simply flailed around trying to dislodge William from its back. Finally Will managed to land a stab of his tail through the things throat 'killing' it.

It wavered for a moment before, fortunately, falling onto its front and much to William's pleasure one of the smaller dummies. He grinned as he raised a claw to strike the dummy but was interrupted by a sudden and rather painful impact to his back. Not wasting a moment he leaped forward away from the sores of the impact, pushing his back legs down on the trapped dummy hoping to cause at least some damage.

He spun around to see the remaining dummy tread over his fallen 'leader' to get to him. Will almost involuntarily growled at the dummy. He leaped into the air and dove down on his opponent shoving him to the ground. The dummy attempted to swing its sword at him but William was faster, pinning its arms with his own forelegs and digging in with his claws. He jabbed forward with his head, gripping the thing's 'neck' and twisted it sharply breaking it.

Calmly, but breathing heavily, he climbed off the dummy and strode towards the remaining trapped dummy who was struggling furiously. He held his tail spike above the things head and then did something unexpected. "Do you wish to surrender?" He asked almost mockingly, but the dummy paid no attention and simply continued to struggle. Will sighed and put on a satisfied smile. "I thought not." His tail spike plunged down into the dummy's head and turned back to the Guardians, still breathing relatively deeply.

Volteer seemed quite pleased. "Well done, well done indeed! Though you really should pay more attention to your surroundings; a blow like that could have been fatal… and you didn't really need to offer mercy to a thoughtless peace of training equipment…"

William shrugged. "If I do not show restraint and maintain composure in training how am I supposed to do so in real life?"

Volteer chuckled. "It would appear you are wise beyond your years."

Again William shrugged. "That and it's amusing to hear them beg for their lives… even if you do grant them mercy." That visibly unsettled Volteer. William smirked. "I teas of course."

That calmed Volteer's nerves though he still seemed unsure.

Ignitus on the other hand still seemed upset about something. "Again." He demanded.

William narrowed his eyes at the dragon briefly and turned to see seven dummies appear. Four were the small ones, two of them were the larger ones and the final one was the largest yet, at least twice the mass of the second largest ones.

He had little time to think as the four smaller ones charged at him. He immediately dashed to the right and began to skirt the edge of the training arena, dodging and weaving around the larger opponents as they tried to intercept him. He needed a plan and fast. He looked around franticly, looking for anything to give him an edge over his opponents. Then he spotted something that made him grin, true it was rather cliché but he had no time to think of something more original. He continued to circle his opponents, dodging and changing direction in an attempt to herd and lure them into the centre of the room.

When he thought he had them in as good a position as he could get them he leaped into the air, flapping his wings intensely to get to the top of the room. When he reached it he made his intentions clear when he landed on the large iron chandelier suspended there by a frayed rope. He slashed the rope with his claw and jumped back as quickly as he could. It dropped like so much dense metal to the dummies gathered below.

Two of the smaller ones survived, managing to get out of the way in time but William quickly dispatched them.

Then panting heavily he turned back to the Guardians, panting heavily this time. He felt more drained after the intense fighting then had ever felt before in his life. He turned and scowled at the Guardians briefly before straitening himself out and putting on a blank and stoic expiration. He was an Englishman after all; he had a reputation for a stiff upper lip to maintain.

The Guardians stood there gaping at the young dragon.

"Is that good enough to redeem myself for not paying enough attention to my surroundings?" He asked calmly, the sarcasm behind the comment well hidden.

"That… that, that was brilliant!" Volteer stuttered. "In all my years I have never seen such an innovative solution displayed by someone so early on in their training!"

Ignitus shot Volteer a disapproving look. He cleared his throat. "While you did find a rather… innovative solution to our situation it had rather… destructive side effects. Such outcomes are not always desirable."

William snorted. "Collateral damage! You're the one who insisted on pitting me against impossible odds."

"Then why didn't you use your elemental abilities to even the odds?" He questioned.

"My what?" William said in surprise before catching on. "You mean the lightning thing? Then why didn't you say so!"

"This was meant to be test of all your fighting abilities, not just your ability to cause chaos." Ignitus explained, his voice strained by stress.

"I thought you said this was to be an estimation of my physical combat abilities. Magic is about as far from physical as the words that come out of my mouth." In truth he remembered little of the sort being said but he was no stranger to bending the truth a little to win an argument when he was pissed off… or to save himself from embarrassment.

Ignitus hesitated for a moment. _'Did I say that? If I did…'_ He shrugged the thought off and turned his attention back to the boy in front off him.

"Let me guess; my next task is to clear up the mess? Well sorry, you're out of luck. And if that means I'm no longer welcome I'm sure someone else will be willing to give me what I want in exchange for a far more reasonable price. Who knows, maybe this Cynder fellow isn't as bad as you make him out to be, chances are you excaudate because he's your enemy." He marched past the Guardians, an air of contempt surrounding him.

Ignitus was more than a little stunned by the comment, even a little angered.

"Wait! What about your elemental abilities, we still have yet to see them!" Volteer called out disappointedly.

"You can consider the demonstration postponed, I have better things to do then smash your toys to pieces all day." He pouted as he disappeared around the corner. In truth he was simply too tired to continue right now.

A moment later after a brief silence Volteer turned to Ignitus. "I told you we should have just asked him." He said, devoid of malice or spite. To Volteer he was simply stating a fact.

Ignitus groaned in irritation, though admittedly more at his own failings then Volteer's strait forward statement. He simply walked to the pool of visions and lay down, calming himself and attempting to gain insight on Spyro's progress in Tall Plaines.

William collapsed onto his bed. He regretted snapping like that. He could be vicious with his words and at the same time maintain enough composure to add to the shock and seem far more serious than he actually was.

He groaned in annoyance at how his mussels ached and realised he also regretted forcing himself to calm down faster than he should have done after each fight and just to show off. He rolled his eyes at the thought of his own vanity.

He sighed and got up. The adrenalin was wearing off but his mind was still buzzing far too much to get any real rest. He quickly retrieved a book, the one on elemental abilities and took it back to his nest to read.

Not long after getting past the basic introduction he was interrupted by a knock on the door. He groaned again in irritation. "Enter… at your peril." He joked sourly.

It was Volteer. "You may be talented but I doubt you could match a Guardian just yet." He replied in good humour.

William raised an eye ridge. "Want to make that a bet?" He asked slyly.

Volteer shook his head, an amused expression. "No, most certainly not. I am afraid I am here to talk on other more serious matters… your little outburst primarily."

He sighed. "Physical exertion and demanding situations usually do that to me. It makes me irritable… and impatient."

"Clearly… but I must still ask if you were serious. Joining the dark army is nothing to joke about. I highly doubt it is what you would want… it is most likely you would be made a servant or common foot soldier." Volteer commented, his voice was heavy with concern.

"No… I was bluffing. Words can sting as easily as any other weapon. I was running on adrenalin at the time, stuck in an offensive mind set. I am sorry if I offended you… or scared you." William apologised calmly. He was tempted to lash out again, ask if Ignitus had sent him to subdue his temper but he held back. He was too annoyed, upset and groggy to be angry… if that made sense.

"Well, that certainly is a relieving fact to know."

"Still…" Will was thinking. "Is this Cynder really all that bad? Everyone has a story, a reason. I mean, he could have simply killed you before he left you at Dante's Freezer. What's his motivation?"

Volteer sighed. "I suppose you won't be satisfied until you get your answers but for some of it I will have to confer with Ignitus. The information is… sensitive."

Will rolled his eyes. It bought back memories of when he had asked his dad about the things he did at his job. "Don't worry, I'm more used to that answer then you'd think. What can you tell me?"

"Well we suspect Cynder was stolen as an egg and she was indoctrinated by the apes. They are cruel and vicious so I have little doubt torture was involved not to mention dark and forbidden forms of magic." He commented grimly.

"Wait, Cynder's a chick? And… a slave?" He said in grim realisation.

Volteer hesitated. "That term would not be… entirely inaccurate. And yes, she is a dragoness. Though I believe her enthralment is far more complicated then then simple slavery." He speculated.

William frowned. "If you are forced, coerced or manipulated into doing something you would not normally do on a regular, long term basis then by my definition you are a slave." He addressed firmly. "That includes dark magic, possession or anything else that may be used to control someone against their will." He truly did despise slavery.

Seeing the dark look in James's eye Volteer decided not to pursue the topic. "You don't seem to be getting on too well with Ignitus. I assure you he is a good person, I've known him almost all my life and I have never seen him act out against anyone without good reason. However you seem rather unsure of him."

The abrupt change of subject caught him by surprise for a moment. "I find him… unsettling. He's hiding things, not telling the whole story and pretending he is. I can take someone telling me I'm not allowed to know something for a reason but beating around the bush like that? It feels like he's trying to manipulate me."

Slowly James's point of view began to fall into place in Volteer's mind. "I see. I suppose I can understand where you are coming from. You have obviously travelled far to an unfamiliar land with new and perplexing rules. I suspect that where ever you come from the dangers you must be weary of are more subtle, you are used to dealing with tricksters and con artists over those who would attack you directly, no?" He deduced, a slight air of excitement in his voice.

William felt like he had been slapped in the face. "Yeah… how'd you work that out?" He asked in a dazed expression.

Volteer chuckled. "My dear boy, one does not become a Guardian without good cause for one to be so."

Will groaned inside his head. _'Okay, so maybe they are in charge for a good reason… still doesn't mean I trust them yet.'_ He thought to himself. "Yes, your right. Intelligence is far more important where I come from than physical prowess, though strength is most certainly not irrelevant."

"That is fortunate; while the strong cannot always become intelligent the intelligent have every chance to become strong. After what I saw you do in the training ground I have little doubt you will adapt and find your place here… you just need to be a little more patient." Volteer comforted.

William simply sat there for a moment, spaced out as he stared at nothing as he so often did. _'Find my place here? Should I even be here? I certainly didn't ask for this… but do I want it?'_ The questions scuttled through his head like so many little bugs. Eventual he came to a decision. "I think I will stay here for the foreseeable future… it's certainly the safest place I've been so far. However don't expect me to bend over to Ignitus's beck and call. I will not become someone's laky like Spyro has."

Volteer seemed a little disgruntled by the reply but also rather happy about it. "You have an odd way of seeing things but it is no real problem. For now I am simply relieved that you are choosing to stay, though even if the temple is one of the safest places to be right now it is by no means safe… just safer than anywhere else. So, now we have that settled how about we see what that allegedly electrical maw of yours can do, shall we?"

William hesitated. "Uh… no. Sorry but no. I'm still rather exhausted. How about later this evening?"

Volteer looked him over him for a moment. "Very well… but I will hold you to that! Now, I think I best attend to some of my duties. It has been an enlightening experience conversing with you. I most certainly enjoyed it."

William nodded. "As did I."

With that, Volteer nodded in return before leaving and William settled down back into his book. "Sort of." He muttered afterwards.

Volteer approached Ignitus who was still staring into the pool of visions.

"Any news on Spyro?" He asked.

"No, not so far." Ignitus sighed. "What of our guest? He is not too distressed I would hope?" He asked half-heartedly. He had not gotten off to a good start with the young dragon.

"He is upset but not terribly so. We haven't driven him off just yet." Volteer answered seriously.

He sighed again, deeply. "I just don't understand Volteer. It has been so many years since I have had to deal with children. When Spyro came along he was so agreeable and understanding. This James on the other hand… well, he's…" Ignitus felt he was at a loss of words to describe the youngling.

"Rude? Arrogant? Condescending? Vain? Prideful? Precocious? Stubborn? All of this and more? Humm?" Volteer listed off rapidly. He then chuckled at Ignitus's now irritated expression. "Yes stubborn, like another friend of mine when he was young. Remember he has travelled far for reasons I doubt even he himself knows or at least understands. He is as suspicious of us as you are of him. One of you will have to make a first step, break the ice so to speak."

Ignitus sighed. "Perhaps you are right… perhaps the events of the world have turned me senile early." He joked. "We have to make him, no, show him we are not a threat and that he is indeed on the right side of the fence. The question is how…"

"Well I have already gained some trust from him through teaching him to read our writings." Volteer suggested half-heartedly. "He seems to respond well to people assisting him in evening his odds, levelling the playing field."

Slowly an idea began to manifest in Ignitus's head. "Perhaps if… yes that might work…"

"What is it Ignitus?" Volteer asked feeling unsure of what his old friend was cooking up beneath his cranium.

"Since the boy won't take our word for it we'll just have to show him." Ignitus said determinedly. He walked back to the pool of visions leaving Volteer wondering what he meant. "Come, let me explain…"

* * *

><p>Authors' notes: Apogees if this is a little late, the last half of this chapter didn't come quite as smoothly as the others, I even had to cut it off a little at the end.<p>

My thanks to 'Cory ()' for pointing out the mistakes, they will be rectified soon. Further thanks to all the other reviewers for their support, it's always good to know when one is doing well. Oh, and also to 'Mekkor0101', a dragon in a top hat may very well make an appearance. Thanks for that, the idea made me laugh to!

It may be a little while before my next update as this story is being received so well and I want to get some more solid planning down on paper, I usually just get a general idea in my head and make the rest up as I go along. At least want to get some scaffolding up for this one.

Till next time then.


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